Cultivating “Egg”eniers

A groundbreaking approach towards science is being made throughout middle school by bringing theoretical concepts to life by mixing creativity and engineering.

By constructing their project around a real-life problematic, the 7th-grade students are using their knowledge of ecology in order to create a unique and innovative gliding device.

“The scenario is that they are either a scientist or engineer that is working for Boeing or Airbus and they have to create an efficient gliding machine that can keep a passenger safe when they land despite a 20-meter fall,” said 7th-grade science teacher Juan Sebastian Cardona.

This new innovative approach focuses more on project-based learning instead of the traditional lecture and test structure in order to make the class more interesting and real for students, and they prefer it.

“I like it because it is more fun and we can have more fun activities in our learning,”7th-grade student, Miguel Merino said.

In addition, all of their designs must be eco-friendly. Unlike previous years, none of the materials used are made or based on plastic. Students are also encouraged to use recycled materials from previous years in order to create awareness and teach them about how they can help the environment.

“Everything is eco-friendly,” said Cardona, “unfortunately, students do not know that a piece of Styrofoam takes 10,000 years to decompose.”

Furthermore, this project goes beyond the realms of conservation and science since they also introduce advanced concepts of physics and geometry to further increase the transcendence of the assignment.

“We are going to be using an app called video physics… it takes time, horizontal displacement, vertical displacement,” said Cardona, ”but we are actually going to use the Pythagorean theorem to find diagonal displacement.”

However, even if their design flops, Cardona explains that the success of the project isn’t measured on the egg’s final state but rather on the actions behind it.

“We do not base ourselves in the fact of failing… it’s the process that I am interested in,” said Cardona, “The whole idea is making them get to the objective without giving them the answer.”