A total of 12 eighth-grade engineering students, representing three teams, from Bennett’s Mill Middle put their engineering skills to the test at the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) Fluid Power Challenge at Georgia Tech.
The team of Joseph Ballaero, Vu Huyn, Ben Kellam, and Rian Phillip brought home the Team Challenge Champion Award, one of five awards presented at the competition. They competed against 21 teams from seven schools across the Atlanta area.
The NFPA Fluid Power Challenge is a competition for middle school students that teaches them about fluid power technology (hydraulics and pneumatics), and provides hands-on experience while building a fluid power mechanism with real world applicability.
Prior to the competition, students attend a workshop where they are given the assignment of designing and constructing a fluid power mechanism that picks up an object from one platform, and rotates and places it on another.
Teams work for four-weeks on their prototypes before competing against each other in a two-minute competition to see how many pick-and-place cycles a school’s machine can complete. In addition, students are also evaluated on the their team’s design approach, teamwork, and portfolio that includes a drawing of the machine and its components, explanation of the device, and assessment of performance.
The challenge requires students to use both math and engineering skills. The NFPA sponsors the program to introduce students and their teachers to the world of engineering and careers in fluid power, and as a way to encourage students to select more mathematics and science courses in high school to keep their options open for technology-based post-secondary studies.
