A new idea for the school year was immediately put into practice the first two days at the Greene County School District.

The middle school students and staff participated in a design challenge. The design challenge uses Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills to develop a solution, with limited materials and within a time constraint, to solve a problem. The first two days of school, students and staff worked together to create a cupcake delivery system, using only wind power from a large fan. Materials the groups got to use were bottle caps, pipe cleaners, paper towel rolls, coffee filters, rubber bands, and other common materials.

The facilitators would then tell the participants to develop other ways if their first attempt didn’t fully complete the challenge. Those that were successful faced other challenges, such as winds speeds, or releasing the cupcake from a device.

The activity came from a professional development session with representatives from The Tech, a San Jose, California-based company that does hands-on STEM programs. Greene County School District Curriculum Director Karen Sandberg explains the importance of design challenges.

“A way to bring design challenges into the classroom to help kids think differently to solve problems.”

All teachers and staff are tasked with implementing design challenges throughout the school year.