STEM showcase aims to make tech education fun for students

SILVERDALE – Three red-jacketed Central Kitsap High School students watched as a shiny silver fist-sized printer head inside their MakerBot Replicator 3D printer shimmied back and forth. Slowly, the 3D printer applied one thin layer of neon-green molten plastic atop another to build up a "CKHS" nameplate, the text of which rose from the nameplate's flat surface.

SILVERDALE – Three red-jacketed Central Kitsap High School students watched as a shiny silver fist-sized printer head inside their MakerBot Replicator 3D printer shimmied back and forth. Slowly, the 3D printer applied one thin layer of neon-green molten plastic atop another to build up a “CKHS” nameplate, the text of which rose from the nameplate’s flat surface.

The students – Thomas Griffith, Greg VanOrt, Ryan Regynski and Eric Ma – used the 3D printer and the computer application AutoCAD to create various objects for their computer assisted drafting class.

In a small box next to the printer, dozens of plastic finger rings with “CK” printed on the front were available for passerby as souvenirs. A 3D-printed spaceship toy was also on display. The blue-colored spaceship was partially encased in a brown-colored 3D-printed support structure that was used to stabilize the structure during the printing process. The support structure would later be dissolved in water, leaving only the blue ship remaining.

The students also used the MakerBot printer to create propellers for their homemade underwater roving vehicle. The propellers looked rough, but they worked. The props were mounted to small electric motors on the ROV. They said they used the ROV’s hydrometer to measure salinity at different water depths in Dyes Inlet.

The students’ exhibit was one of dozens at the annual West Sound STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Showcase hosted at Kitsap Mall April 25.

Event organizer and K-12 STEM outreach coordinator Corinne Beach said the purpose of the showcase was to expose children to STEM concepts in a fun way to encourage them to study STEM and then, later, to find their way into STEM-based careers.

The purpose was “to get kids excited about different STEM activities,” Beach said.

“This is to show them that educational type things can be fun.”

By having students perform real-world tasks such as building a bridge from sugar cubes, they can apply learning concepts to the real world.

“It’s not just crunching math problems,” Beach said, but actually building things.

Hundreds of children and their parents perused the malls various STEM displays: One table showed how solar panels could generate electricity and use electrolysis to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. Then, the elements were recombined in a small fuel cell to create electricity and power a small electric fan.

Robotic arms were at another table, moving slowly in the air.

A large crowd gathered to see how much weight a suspension bridge made from nothing but wooden Popsicle sticks, wood glue and yarn could support before collapsing.

North Kitsap High School junior Kate Pearson added more and more weight to the bridge that her class built over the course of several weeks. Amazingly, the bridge accepted each new weight that Pearson stacked onto it. Finally, at 142.5 pounds, the weight proved too much for the bridge to bear. The tower of metal weights slowly tilted, and the bridge structure collapsed, much to the amusement of the crowd.

Central Kitsap STEM coordinator Doug Dowell said 22 sites in the CK school system were involved in STEM programs with the help of its funding group, called Washington STEM.

Previously the event had been held at Bremerton High School, but for the last two years it’s been held at the Kitsap Mall.

“The mall has been a great partner,” Dowell said.

CK High School students Greg VanOrt, Ryan Regynski and Eric Ma, from left, show a 3D-printed toy spaceship to girls at Kitsap Mall. In the foreground is their MakerBot 3D printer.