West Branch students win Mars Rover design contest
West Branch Middle School’s students spent a large part of their school year competing to build a Mars Rover.
The seventh-grade STEM students participated in the Invent2Make Mars Rover Competition. This is part of the Invent2Make Program based in Mahoning County.
Team Survivor from West Branch won both the middle and high school divisions. The victory earned West Branch Local School District’s STEM program a 3D trophy printer to use next school year.
Members of Team Survivor were Laine Muhleman, Jacob Hardy, Cashous Eilola, Zoe Carreon, Lucas Herold, Ava Knipp and Alec O’Hara.
West Branch qualified for the championship round on May 12 by finishing among the top 3 teams in the qualifying competitions held in January and April.
Invent2Make’s “Gaining Traction on Mars Project” provided students with Mars Rovers kits to build and test on a simulated Mars surface. Students designed and optimized new wheels and equipment for their Rovers using the tests.
“This project explores Mars, its history, conditions, surface, and why Mars exploration is important,” explains Angeline Theis, director of instructional programming for West Branch Local Schools. “Students study wheel design, ratios, and gears, and use this knowledge to evaluate velocity and torque impact on performance. With initial performance data, they design wheels and gears to optimize performance.”
This competition also allowed students to learn more about previous missions to Mars, and NASA’s current missions, along with lessons about NASA’s plans to sending humans to Mars.
“As a district, we continue to develop and expand our STEM offerings because STEM fields are significant forces of innovation and development in our community, state, and nation,” said Theis.
