Students’ Contraptions Run on Tomorrow’s Energy
By Chris Gosier, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.
Feb. 4–STAMFORD — Using zeal, creativity and a whole lot of Legos, Stamford schoolchildren yesterday constructed projects to demonstrate how electrical energy is produced and distributed.
They brought the projects to the University of Connecticut at Stamford for an exposition focusing on science and technology education. They teemed with enthusiasm for their projects as adults spoke to them about the judging and prizes.
“The energy I see is just absolutely amazing,” said Rungson Samroengraja, vice president of new product development at Pitney Bowes Global Mainstream Solutions Engineering, a sponsor of the event. “It gives me such comfort.”
It was the first time Stamford played host to the Junior First Lego League Exposition, a collaboration between the Lego toy company and FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a nonprofit organization in Manchester, N.H.
More than 150 elementary school students signed up, guided by parent coaches or high school students who signed on as mentors. They used Legos and miniature motors to build projects that demonstrated how power is generated.
A team of Davenport Ridge Elementary School students, the Davenport Energators, built a model of a windmill-like device that would harness tidal energies to generate power, while learning about renewable energy in the process.
The Toquam Electrons from Toquam Magnet Elementary School built a model of a solar cell power station with panels that pivot to track the sun across the sky.
A team of Rogers Magnet elementary students built a model showing the movement of energy from a power plant to a transfer station to a school building.
“I learned a lot about energy,” 10-year-old Patrick Mandeville said.
One team of children from Springdale elementary thought beyond electricity to the energy in the human body. They called themselves the Springdale Sugar Rush.
“It was really funny how they made that connection,” said their mentor, 16-year-old Scott Caporizzo, a Stamford High School junior.
He told them to build a project related to energy and the children took it from there.
“It’s pretty amazing how universal little kids’ minds are,” he said. “They learned a lot. It was really good for them. They had a lot of fun, too. That was the most important part.”
Parent Bill Janocha worked with the Energetic Brick Kickers from Northeast Elementary School.
“These kids really came through,” Janocha said. “I had very little involvement. What they really wanted to do was make models.”
The Boys & Girls Club of Stamford also formed a team.
The exposition came to Stamford with help from the Stamford Public Education Foundation, the Stamford Parent Teacher Council and other groups. That was after Mallika Winsor, a Stamford High junior who participated in the First Lego League in the past, got the idea to bring the event to Stamford, said her father, Peter Dowling.
“The response from the community has been tremendous,” he said.
—–
To see more of The Stamford Advocate, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stamfordadvocate.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.