Schools

Napa's 1st Tech Challenge Wraps: Schoolkids 'Harnessed Wind' in Saturday Competition

Thanks to River Middle dad David Keaney, who brought the challenge to Napa!

Middle and high school students from across Napa Valley Unified took part Saturday in the first annual Napa Tech Challenge at Vintage High School -- an opportunity to team-up, design, build and compete with their own solutions to solve a real world problem. 

NapaLearns.org and NapaTechChallenge.org have partnered with the  The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose to bring you this year’s “Tech Challenge”: Harness the wind to move water. 

The test rig was located at Heather Brooks’ science classroom at Vintage High School. Guest judges from the UC Davis Engineering department included Juniors Sam Dirs, Ben MacDonald and Hannah Kearney. Judges ranked the teams on spirit, video journaling, teamwork and problem/solution solving. 

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This year, teams included representatives from River Middle and Vintage High schools. Team Magic from Vintage won first place in high school ranking and Team Super Flaming Watermelons took home the highest honor for River Middle School. 

The challenge was rigorous this year. Students from the middle school quickly worked to problem solve to compensate for high water levels in the rig. One team from Vintage realized that an integral connection was off, effecting crucial wind velocity. 

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David Kearney, from Bommerang.com and a River Middle School parent, brought the challenge to Napa. 

He was excited to see so many student working to problem solve while learning important math, science engineering and math skills (STEM). 

“We moved to this community so our children could have access to this type of project-based learning. Next year, we hope to see all middle and high schools take part in the challenge throughout Napa Valley Unified School District,” said Kearney. 

In project-based learning, learning is contextual, creative, and shared. Students collaborate on projects that require critical thinking and communication. By making learning relevant to them in this way, student engagement reaches new levels.  

Each year The Tech Museum of Innovation out of San Jose, CA creates a contest that challenges the San Francisco Bay Area youth to solve real world problems. 

The Tech Challenge has been running for over 27 years and last year had over 3,000 students compete.NapaTechChallenge.org, part of the NapaLearns.org organization was created to bring The Tech Challenge to Napa Valley students.

 


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