Second and third grade Engineers at Parkview sweep the OCDE awards at the ocMaker Challenge

A global pandemic, rooming and zooming, masks and desk shields, never stood a chance against the outstanding 2nd and 3rd grader engineers of Mrs. Frey’s class at Parkview School.  Students diligently worked for three months collaborating as teams, engineering prototypes, testing, retesting, receiving peer feedback, as well as reflecting as both teams and individuals in virtual notebooks they kept throughout the process.

Inspired by the failings and growth mindset of Space X engineers, peer-aged designers, and the fictional engineer, Rosie Revere, Engineer, students mastered ngss standards and the Engineering Design Process to compete in the OCDE’s STEM project, the ocMaker Challenge.  This STEM outreach, open to all OC public schools PK-12th grade, offered the perfect opportunity for the students to critically analyze the world and address the prompt, “Design and build, or significantly repurpose, a product that will solve a problem, need, or want”.

Mrs. Frey’s engineers eagerly accepted the challenge and constructed projects such as Mr. Bloxy, the craft helper (a walking, helping robot that stores craft items in its body) earning the elementary category award in Tooling/Fabrication, the Rocket House (a movable home on railroad tracks for unhoused people that filters its own water) earning 3rd place in the Elementary category, the Silent Dragon (a drone that sends radio waves to prompt people to stop interrupting) earning 2nd place and Most Innovative, or COPR the Combustor (a trash eating dog that eats and digests trash and delivers fertilizer out the other end) earning 1st place in the Elementary category and Most Socially Conscientious.

They videotaped stellar team presentations of their final products and waited. On May 20th, Mrs. Frey’s class attended the OCDE virtual awards ceremony with several other teams from around Orange County. They amazed the judges with their engineering prototypes and creative thinking and placed in several categories.  The students will also receive a monetary award provided by the amazing sponsors of the STEM project. When asked what they learned from completing this project, one student perfectly stated, “I learned how to fail well.” Congratulations on your terrific job representing PYLUSD to Orange County, little engineers!