Fritsche Students Energized About Engineering Airways

At the sixth annual sySTEMnow (Strengthening our Youth in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) conference Oct. 20, 2009, Fritsche Middle School and P&H Mining were presented with the Stemmy Partnership Award for the successful implementation of the Project Lead the Way program. Stemmy awards recognize excellence in promoting student learning opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Partnering with P&H

P&H Mining Equipment, a subsidiary of Joy Global, Inc., invested in Fritsche by providing funding for the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) program. PLTW is a national program that promotes the advancement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through a project-driven curriculum. In PLTW coursework, students learn to apply visualization, mathematical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and scientific processes to rigorous engineering and academic tasks. Students create designs using professional engineering software.

P&H Mining representatives elected to partner with Fritsche because of the level of staff commitment. Their firm is one of many MPS partners who work together to inspire students to engage in and pursue STEM careers. These partners recognize that the shortage of engineering graduates in the United States can be addressed locally through innovative collaborations between businesses and schools. 

P&H Mining’s involvement in engineering education is not limited to their funding of PLTW at Fritsche Middle School. Anne Kebisek, P&H Mining’s employee and community programs coordinator, established a program that puts engineers in the classroom to mentor students working on engineering tasks. Adam Scheuerman, a Bay View resident and P&H engineer, and Daniel Feld, P&H engineer, volunteered to mentor students as they created computer-assisted drawings and as they fabricated their designs.

The partnership has grown this year to include sixth through eighth grades at Fritsche and also ninth grade at Bay View High School. Four new engineers and designers-Jason Zidek, Norm Kopp, Paul Todd, and Mike Sizemore-volunteered to be PLTW classroom coaches.

LEGO Robotics

Another engineering project embraced by Fritsche students this year was FIRST LEGO League, a robotics problem/research/solution competition. Two teams from Fritsche Middle School, the ROBOGEEKS and the PLTW Robot, competed at the Marquette University High School tournament Nov. 17, 2009. The students were so engaged that they worked after school and on Saturdays preparing for the competition. They gained confidence, knowledge, and skills, plus they were awarded the Rising Star Award by the tournaments judges. They are already refining their programming to be ready for next year’s challenge.

NASA’s Amber Gell

A really incredible experience for the Fritsche PLTW students was a visit from Milwaukee native Amber Gell, NASA engineer and astronaut applicant, Dec. 2, 2009. During her visit Gell gave a slide presentation about what’s up at NASA.

Students were fascinated by her description of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, a spacecraft in development at NASA. A movie depicting future space missions was used to tell Orion’s story. Gell fielded important questions from students and helped them realize that hard work and a genuine commitment to education can enable one to get paid for what one loves doing.

Fluid Power Challenge

Another engineering project of Fritsche students was constructing, testing, and tweaking a pneumatic device that they took to Milwaukee School of Engineering for the National Fluid Power Association’s Fluid Power Challenge Dec. 11, 2009. In 2008, one of the five teams (Ramon Garcia, Tahira Zapata, Yang Xiong) from Fritsche won a trophy for moving the most canisters within 2.5 minutes with the device they designed and built. It was a great engineering experience.

One of this year’s teams (including Candice Hopper, Tim Hennessey, Marco Ortiz, and Jelsyn Nunez Castillo) won the championship trophy for best cumulative score for teamwork, design, engineering notebook, and challenge.

Merging Programs

The middle school students will have to sharpen their engineering saws this winter because Mr. Debelak, the Bay View High School PLTW engineering teacher, and I are collaborating to hold our own in-school fluid power challenge. The eighth and ninth grade students will compete against the 10th through 12th grade students on a pneumatic design, construction, and application challenge.

Students are already asking about the annual spring PLTW Regatta, an opportunity for students to design and fabricate pond yachts that they set sail at Saveland Park’s lagoon. The pond yacht races bring together people all of ages, from toddlers to grandparents, who surround the edge of the pond to watch.

Engineering is a strong focus at Fritsche and we are excited by the promise of our new school when our program moves to Bay View High School. BVHS has added PLTW, a complement to its Building Architecture and Technology (BAT) Academy program. Students will be able to flow from middle school engineering coursework to the high school PLTW courses and, of course, bigger and better challenges.