STEM III 1st Quarter Projects
Welcome to STEM III! This website is designed for YOU! Over the next four quarters you'll have the opportunity to work on amazing projects. Each project is unique but they're all real problems for your sponsors and will require the best from your team. My job is to help you succeed, learn from your failures, and along the way, grow your collaboration, critical thinking, and innovation skills. Who's ready to get started?
If you're reading this before the first day of school--that's AWESOME! Here's a sneak peak of what's in store for the first quarter.
It may be summer, but the EPB team is already planning for the holidays and they can't wait to work with you. If visiting the holiday windows is one of your family traditions, you already know how big a deal it is for Chattanooga. For this project, your team will create design concepts and signature pieces for each of the windows. The best part of all: each team will work with EPB over the 2nd quarter to bring your ideas to life for the entire city to see. If you love developing creative ideas, making things, and being part of a Chattanooga tradition, then this might be the project for you!
You may not have heard of WestRock but you know their customers: Target, Home Depot, and Hibbett Sports, to name but a few. Located only a few miles from the STEM School, WestRock designs and fabricates custom promotional displays for big-name national companies. If you see cardboard-based displays in stores that look really cool, they were probably designed at WestRock. Their plant includes many of the same tools you'll find in our FabLab--except on an industrial scale. In this project, you'll work on making a product display for Adventure Sports Innovation. Their job mixes art, marketing, design, engineering, and production into one. With the tools in the FabLab, you actually have the ability to create displays of near-professional quality as WestRock. The kickoff will include a visit to WestRock's creative offices followed by a plant tour. Are you ready to take the challenge? Checkout WestRock's website to learn more about our sponsor.
Kenco is one of the largest supply chain management companies in the country and innovation has been a cornerstone since their founding. Keeping track of their vast inventory is crucial to their success so Kenco is exploring technologies built around the Internet of Things or IoT. IoT involves bringing the Internet to non-traditional “things”. For Kenco, that means things such as pallets, lifts, and trailers. For this project, students will prototype IoT systems to help improve safety and preventing forklift accidents. If using technology to solve real problems sounds exciting, then this project might be for you!
Adventure Sports Innovation’s mission is to pioneer new technology for outdoor experiences, enabling our community to explore and experience recent inventions and innovations in a fun and safe environment. Located next to Coolidge Park, ASI specializes in water, land, and virtual experiences. Their adventure fleet includes e-bodyboards, e-off-road vehicles, and e-unicycles where the “e” means powered by electric motors. With a mission built around innovation, ASI is always looking for new ideas to improve the customer experience. For this project, STEM student teams will choose from several options to help ASI prototype new ideas including fabricating an e-unicycle advanced practice course, creating a custom carrier to transport equipment, and designing wall art for their customer training room. If fabricating custom equipment or creating engaging visual products is your thing, then this project might be for you!
Each October, Enterprise South Nature Park turns its walking paths into a haunted trail, a family friendly Halloween event. The centerpiece for the event takes place in an underground bunker. Approximately one hundred bunkers dot the park, left over from when the park was once a TNT production site for the Army. For the second year, the park staff has asked the STEM School to create a “laser light show” in one of these bunkers. The giant bunker features a domed ceiling, a perfect canvas for a dazzling light show. Their ideal light show would be synchronized with music, reliable, easy to use, and supportable with available electrical power. You’ll need all your tricks to blend electronics, lights, and music into an epic Halloween experience for the Haunted Trail!