CHB Team Successful at E-STEM Competition

CHB Team Successful at E-STEM Competition
Posted on 04/21/2021
A five-student team of Charles H. Bullock School fourth graders won third place on April 17 in New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) inaugural eSTEM engineering and design competition for elementary school students (third through fifth grades). Their challenge: It is the year 3020, and the world has finally stopped using fossil fuels. You must rely on the renewable sources around you to power cars, take showers and heat up food. How can you harness the power of the sun in order to heat up a cup of water with a solar oven?

team members


The Fourth Grade CHB eSTEM Team – Nila Baker, Zoe Baker, Michael Fitzgerald, Henry Hudson-Plush, and Leila Williams – completed their solar energy challenge by following the Engineering Design Process (EDP). The Bullock students planned, researched, questioned, designed, built, tested and revised their working solar oven models over a six-week period, culminating in the final presentation.

solar oven

The competition components included the following: Engineering Design Device: Measure the increase in water temperature inside a solar oven as compared to the starting water temperature; Oral Presentation: Present the design, processes, concepts, and evidence of teamwork, including a board/slide display and information on Engineering principles used, methodology, and scientific reasoning; Engineer’s Logbook: Complete and submit an Engineer’s Logbook; Kahoot! Challenge: Participate in a game show style question and answer challenge using the Kahoot! Computer Application.

Beverly Weitzman, Bullock curriculum support teacher, coached the students throughout the process. “Not only did the students excel in the academic work needed to achieve this award, they made sure to respect each other’s ideas and included at least one unique element from each teammate’s individual prototype in the final product,” said Weitzman. “This was a great experience! Our fourth graders demonstrated that they can meet any challenge when working together.”

Sreyus Balasubramanian, a NJIT sophomore studying mechanical engineering who served as a mentor to the Bullock students, answered questions regarding rules and logistics, and provided overall guidance to the CHB team.

“These fourth grade students rose to the incredible challenges that working on this competition, mostly virtually, presented,” said Bullock Principal Nami Kuwabara. “I couldn’t be more proud of them and how they represented themselves and CHB.”
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