Godwin students put skills to the test

Before leaving school for the summer, the third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students at Godwin Elementary designed, built and tested skimmers, balloon cars and gliders. Their experiments were conducted as part of the The Society of Automotive Engineers, World in Motion educational challenges.

“This is a new science and engineering program for Godwin students and teachers, and it has been an overwhelming success,” Naureen Fielding said. Fielding is a fifth-grade science teacher at Godwin.

“Students at each grade level were presented with their challenge and then, in teams of three or four, worked together to identify physics concepts such as thrust, drag, lift, motion, energy, aerodynamics and friction and how they affect the movement of their individual vehicles,” she said.

The third-graders tested how the shape of sails affected the distance and speed their skimmers would move. 

Fourth- graders tested the thrust of balloon air through different sized tubes and its effect on the speed and distance their cars would travel. Fifth-graders applied design fundamentals for a standard glider to their own design and then assessed the variables of nose weight and wing position on flight distances. 

“These activities integrated science, math, and language arts as the students designed, measured, communicated and perfected their projects and presented them in grade-level competitions. These projects provided the students an opportunity to demonstrate how important collaborative thought and problem solving are to the success of any project and how critical thinking is necessary to the development of everyday products,” Fielding said.

“Plus, they had fun applying all the different skills and concepts they have learned over the school year to a tangible project.”

After completing and presenting their projects, winners were selected from each grade level.

In the third-grade, skimmers category Baylee McCreight, Saige Singer, Hunter Bates and Kevin Tovar won first place. Rebecca Stanton, Jourdyn Albaugh and Joshua Chappell earned second place, and Morgan Crank, Tommy Davis, Andrew Davis,  and Quachae Hotchkins took third place.

The fourth-grade balloon car championship went to Kendall Deering, Brittany Mondragon and Dakota Bates. Collin Phillips, Trevor Brown and Allee Free came in second, and Edwin Castro, Megan Dejarnet, Renee Turner and Christian Arredondo earned third place.
Winning the fifth-grade gliders competition were Kai Brinkerhoff, Manuel Mendoza and John Michael Ray. Second place went to Logan Crawford, Shawn Darland and Jonathan Fears and third place was Destiny Estrada, Mark Norton and Dylan Pfeil.