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Times-shamrock communiTy newspapers 149 Penn Avenue Scranton, PA 18503 Phone: (570) 348-9185 Fax: (570) 207-3448
April 7, 2016
abingtonsuburban.com
Making K’Nexions
ON THE INSIDE The latest happenings in our area Page 3
SUBURBAN
Lackawanna Trail sixth-graders win building competition by Linda Scott
SPECIAL TO THE ABINGTON SUBURBAN
K’Nex may be a toy, but the K’Nex challenge, accepted by students from Lackawanna Trail and several other area schools was quite serious. The students could build anything they wanted, but they had to follow guidelines: their creation had to be one meter tall, it had to hold weight and it had to be environmentally friendly. The activity was part of the district’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum. “The K’Nex challenge is a tradition at the school,” principal Brian Kelly said. “It is a big deal for the students, and they are very competitive.” K’Nex is a construction toy system similar to Lego or the old-style tinkertoy, but it’s more complex than either and is aimed at older kids. It consists of interlocking plastic rods, connectors, gears, wheels and other components, which can be pieced together to form a wide variety of models, machines and architectural structures. Teachers Gail Franko and Chris Gercken were coaches for the sixth-grade team. “It was amazing to see the teams work together on these projects. The ideas, the research, the collaborations and the team effort are all fantastic to observe,” said Muller. “Every student contributes, and every student learns.” But at Lackawanna Trail, some students couldn’t participate as much as they would have liked, because there simply weren’t enough kits to go around. The seventh- and eighth-graders had what they needed, but the fifth- and sixth graders needed more. “The fifth- and sixth-grade students raised $769, which allowed the school to buy more K’Nex pieces,” said Franko. “They wanted to be part of the challenge.” Now they are. Twenty-three groups of sixthgraders and nine teams of fifth-graders created their structures for the in-house competition. Each team had four members. One of the fifth-grade teams built a model of
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the Empire State Building. Teachers Laurel Kinback and Gina Pricca were their coaches. “We built a long tall building, looked at it and said ‘What does it look like?’” fifth-grader Annabelle Demora said. “Another team built the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but that fell down.” Sixth-graders Emma Oswald, Maggie Martin, Katie Carpenter and Faith Dewey decided on a structure they called Plant R Us. “We were struggling to come up with a name, and we had a greenhouse, so we went with plants,” Martin said. The “Plants-R-Us” team from Lackawanna Trail took first place in “We decided to use the sixth- through eighth-grade division of the regional competition plants as the weights,” Car- at Johnson College. From left, front row: winners Maggie Martin, penter said. Emma Oswald, Faith Dewey and Katie Carpenter. Back row: Tami The top three winners Landis, community action counselor coordinator at Thermo Fisher at each school moved onto Scientific; Dr. Tania Ross, director of curriculum and resources; Johnson College, which Gail Franko, sixth-grade teacher/coach; Chris Gercken, sixth-grade hosted the Northeast Edu- teacher/coach; Craig Muller, eighth-grade teacher/coach and Dr. cational Intermediate Unit Ann Pipinski, president of Johnson College. 19 STEM Design ChalThe “Plants R Us” team won first place and lenge for the third year. Thermo Fisher Scienwill go on to the state competition in Harrisburg tific and Allegheny Intermidate Unit supported in May. They received plaques and certificates. the event. “They will redesign their structure and come The college welcomed 100 fourth- through up with a new concept,” Gercken said. “The eighth-graders from more than a dozen schools. structure will have a store on the bottom floor Each team could not have any parts connected when they entered the gym and had two hours in which fish, plants and fresh produce will be to put it together. The team members also had sold.” “The event is important to the college beto submit a blueprint, such as a picture or drawcause it encourages students to become more ing, and a budget. “The teams were only allowed to use a cer- involved with science, technology, engineering tain amount of each K’Nex piece,” said Gerck- and math,” Sean Ann Kelly, a media relations en. Each piece had a certain dollar value which representative of Johnson College, said. “All of they used to create their budgets. Some teams our programs at the college are centered around used Excel spreadsheets when creating their these concepts as we prepare students to work in technology-driven careers through hands-on budgets.” education.”