Under the guidance of engineering teacher Seann Schiele, Oak middle school students competed in the third annual ocMaker Challenge in May sponsored in part by the Orange County Department of Education, Airwolf 3D, and MatterHackers.
Teams across Orange County were given the prompt: “design and build, or significantly repurpose, a product that will solve a problem, need, or want.”
The Discovery Cube hosted the ocMaker Challenge exhibit for three days in the Julianne Argyros Showcase Theater and Exhibition Hall in May, although the competition was ongoing since September.
Over the past seven months, many Oak teams pursued their ideas and two teams were chosen to display their final prototype at the Discovery Cube.
Oak designers Macaine Crawford and Samantha Gutierrez, created the “Bike Tone” prototype; a bike mount for your cell phone to encourage safer biking practices while listening to music and answering calls.
Oak’s maker team of Owen Ryan and Sajaad Samed won the highest honors with a First Place Level 4 prototype.
They were recognized at the Discovery Cube Science Center at a private awards ceremony and received an award of $350.00 along with free admission to the Cube.
The team challenged over 170 other entries from Middle School all the way through Community College and won.
“I’m extremely proud of their hard work and perseverance throughout the year in my STREAM Academy class – Computer Science, Engineering, Design, and Robotics, as well as, after school during club hours and Learning Lab,” says Mr. Schiele. “This award solidifies Oak’s Engineering and Makerspace as an innovative space where students can create new products, collaborate, problem solve, and pursue dreams outside the realm of a traditional classroom setting while enforcing the use of STEM concepts within the class.”
To create their level 4 prototype, Owen and Sajaad designed, 3D printed, built, fabricated with specialized tools, coded a microcontroller with sensors, and created a video along with a tri-fold display to accompany their working prototype, the “RADI Pro” (Radiation Amplitude Detector Implement).
The portable RADI Pro measures how much light radiation people are exposed to throughout the day with a read-out of high and low levels.
“I’m so proud of all my students’ hard work and the support we’ve had from administration, staff, parents, the OCDE, Airwolf 3D, MatterHackers, Urban Workshop, and generous grants!” exclaims Mr. Schiele. “The hands-on educational impact has been priceless. It really proves that, if you get the right tools in the hands of teachers and students, they have the opportunity to perform at a high level.”
About STREAM Academy at Oak Middle School?Mr. Schiele’s class utilizes STEAM concepts, which he affectionately calls STREAM Academy, throughout the year. STREAM stands for Science, Technology, Robotics, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. Assignments are project-based and grades are a reflection of smaller milestone projects and lead to a larger culminating collaborative project.