By John Nugent
Student engineering presentations highlighted the East Williston School District Board of Education meeting Monday.
Stacey Weinberg, district director of Technology and Innovation, outlined “Project Lead the Way,” an engineering program consisting of four courses that focus on different solutions to problems.
Students learn where science and math principles intersect with engineering concepts and how they support each other, Weinberg said in her introduction.
Weinberg noted that the district will have fully implemented the New York State standards for K-12 computer science and digital fluency by September 2024.
Emma Rosenberg, a 12th-grade student at the Wheatley School, presented her project on reverse engineering, a technique for taking an assembled product and analyzing each part using 3D modeling software. Rosenberg chose to analyze the parts of a kitchen corkscrew opener, observing “how they interact with each other to make the entire system work as a whole.”
Spurred by her experience with a torn ACL ligament in her knee, Rosenberg is looking to “bring biomechanical engineering to orthopedics and prosthetics.”
Lauren Gong, an 11th grader at Wheatley, remodeled a walkie-talkie, the Motorola Talkabout.
“It was broken in my house, so why not just break it some more?” said Gong.
3D versions of the device were created from isometric drawings. Gong spoke of building and designing parts for the school’s robotics team.
Weinberg concluded the student presentations with a quote from McKinsey & Co., the management consulting firm. “We will experience more technological changes in the coming decade than we did in the preceding 100 years put together.”
Superintendent of Schools Danielle Gately added that she is a living organ donor. Her transplant surgeon told her that “in his lifetime these organs will be 3D printed.”
