As a student of the STEM/PLTW Academy, I have had many opportunities to take part in a variety of Projects that have taught me a variety of skills and leadership lessons.

A joint project between Intro to Engineering and Physics I, this Freshman Year project was not only challenging but taught us irreplaceable information about physics in the real world and its applications. Our trebuchets was themed to The Hunger Games, and while we had a rough start we ended strong. Our Trebuchet launched a Pumpkin 138 feet across the parking lot, a school record that beat the previous record by 1/2 a foot! And we still hold the record to this day!

During my Junior Year I took PLTW's Civil Engineering and Architecture class, and one of our first projects was to design a home that portrayed a specific architectural style. My style was contemporary, which is essentially a style representative of whatever style is common in the era in which it was built. It is a fairly confusing definition, but most of contemporary architecture is very similar to modern. I design a house that I felt portrayed the contemporary model, and used many geometric shapes and modern materials such as glass and concrete in my designs.

This English project was to create a video game that served as a allegory to a current-issue in America. The issue my teammate and I were assigned was Illegal Immigration, and we created a game based around information we happened to be learning in Biology at the same time. A cell serves as the allegory setting, and two types of bacteria are trying to get to the "Vacuopolis" inside the cell, which is representing the opportunities and freedom of America. Below is our presentation of the project, as well as a video of us presenting for you! Feel free to click the links and play our game as well.

Level One: Bacterium Smash Level Two: Gatekeepers Level Three: To the Rescue!

Level Four: Cytoflight Level Five: Swordteria

School of the Future was a 7 week project I did freshman year. I was chosen by my teacher to be the project lead for my class, which meant I was responsible for leading 20 freshman on a multi-month project where we all had to work together and design something that no one knew anything about. At the time I was overwhelmed and unsure of what to do, but I did my best to take everyone’s thoughts into consideration and lead my team to complete the project. I learned that leadership is not easy, that you cannot please everyone and that when working in a team you really have to find common ground. I was taught through this experience that one person cannot do everything, and that teamwork really does make the dream work. In the end, we pulled it all together and won a total of FIVE awards. I have never been more proud of a group of people, we worked so hard and I was so happy that we got those awards in the end.

To view the awards, please click here!

Below are infographics that detail the many aspects we took into consideration in the project.

At the end, my team of leaders and I presented a 30(ish) minute presentation to a panel of judges, those of who has real experience in the categories we were being graded in (the same as the infographics above!). Judges included local architects, NISD administrators, safety admins, and more. Preparing for a Presentation this long was something none of us had done before, and the preparation was tiresome. And the night after our Presentation we had a Open House for parents and students from the community to come view our projects and learn about them. I even got to present our vision on stage in front of hundreds of people...(yaaaaaay). I know I shouldn't have, but leading up to the final day I stayed up for roughly 70 hours straight. Was it worth it? I am not sure. But it was an experience that is for sure. Below is the presentation that we gave to the judges, as well as a shortened 3-minute version!

The Puzzle Cube project was one that was very fun and I actually enjoyed for the entirety of. The inside cube is made up of different shaped blocks that only back fit together one way, and you cannot read the comic (or make the cube) unless you put it together correctly! Then the outside box is meant to protect the Comic Cube inside, but it also has a puzzle of its own. You place the gold key into one of the gears, and as you turn it the lid will then detach itself from the base so you can open it! Figuring out how to make the mechanism work was very challenging, but it was very fun and I loved it! Oh I almost forget the best part, my comic is about a potato with superpowers...ya, let that sink in.

A few projects have their own sites, so they are linked here! Please feel free to visit them!