This past Saturday (April 16), the team of Harmony Magnet Academy students Andrew Bellisch, Dylan Vigil, and Busher Bridi won the 2016 Chevron Design Challenge regional competition in Bakersfield. The Harmony team took first place out of 17 teams and will advance to the state finals on May 14 in Folsom.
Students were presented with a problem to solve and had six hours to create freehand sketches, develop CAD drawings, and create a PowerPoint presentation that was presented to Chevron judges showing their solution.
Project Lead The Way (PTLW) coordinated the student design competition in conjunction with Chevron. Project Lead The Way is a not-for-profit organization partnering with schools, organizations in the private sectors, and higher education institutions to increase the number and quality of engineers, technologists, and biomedical professionals graduating from our educational system.
PLTW offers engineering, computer science and biomedical sciences sequence of course work for high school students and a challenging, 10 week long, "activity oriented" engineering-technology program for middle school students. In addition, PLTW now includes an elementary (grades k-5) program. Students are introduced to the scope, rigor and disciplines of STEM to really get a feeling of the rewards and benefits of being a part of such a powerful career.