Here Comes the Sun: NJ Elementary Students Turn Solar Engineers at NJIT's eSTEM Competition
NJIT’s Center for Pre-College Programs and Newark College of Engineering this month introduced their first-ever STEM competition for New Jersey’s elementary school students — the eSTEM Competition. Highlighting the marathon-like week of friendly competition was a special solar energy design challenge issued to schools across the state this past February, culminating in unique showcase of bright engineering ingenuity from scores of young innovators.
It is the year 3020 and the world has finally stopped using fossil fuels. You must rely on the renewable sources around you to power cars, take showers, and heat up food. How can you harness the power of the sun in order to heat up a cup of water with a solar oven?
Roughly 75 third- to fifth-graders from more than 10 school districts rose to the challenge and squared off virtually last week. But teams began planning with NJIT students in the university's STEMentors Club as early as February to get ready for the eSTEM Competition’s events — including submissions of engineer logbooks detailing more than a month of data and refinements to their solar oven designs; a pressure-packed quiz-show event where teams matched wits on the topic of renewable energy; and lively demo presentations of their devices to dazzle judges in their favor.
"The significance of this competition goes beyond the rich learning experiences that students engaged in as they tackled the eSTEM challenge," said Jacqueline L. Cusack, Executive Director, Center for Pre-College Programs. "It was particularly designed to help build capacity among elementary school educators to prepare a pipeline for young students from underserved and underrepresented schools/districts to enter and succeed in regional and state sponsored STEM competitions. Our eSTEM Competition was a great beginning and we look forward to increasing the participation among diverse elementary students in succeeding years."
“Watching this competition unfold has almost been like a dream come true … I’ve been working with CPCP to help get this event launched for nearly three years now, so finally seeing all the presentations and the work these kids have done has blown me away,” said Anna Wadhwa ’21, president of STEMentors and a third-year senior biochemistry student. “As student-mentors, we’ve been trying to emphasize teamwork and creativity, and they really took us up on that. They should be proud … I’m proud of everyone involved.”
The competition’s design challenge was deceptively simple: build a solar oven no larger than 2-sq.-ft. to heat a cup of water to the highest temperature possible in just two hours. With things like mirrors and solar panels banned from competition, teams had to improvise, using everything from old shipping boxes from Chewy.com to 3D parts made at NJIT’s Makerspace.
“I am so impressed with all the teams that participated in this competition,” said Suzanne Berliner-Heyman, CPCP’s director of Program Operation and Outreach, and chief organizer of the eSTEM event. “Their solar oven devices were incredible and the students did a fantastic job with their presentation videos and logbooks … and they did it all while attending school in a virtual or hybrid format.”
Above: Students from Thomas Edison Charter School (left) and Montclair's Charles H. Bullock School (right) get to work planning their designs.
Above: The Light Beam Scientists from Union City’s Hudson STEM School test their solar oven outdoors.
Above: Student teams from West New York Public School #1 refine their solar oven designs and conduct temperature readings.
“I learned a lot about different eco-friendly ways to collect heat, but the most fun part for me was just building,” said Maximo Grande (shown above-left), from West New York Elementary, whose team, Team Lab Rats, showed that they optimized their design to heat water to nearly 98°F using basic household materials like cardboard, tin foil, aluminum pans and plastic wrap.
Teams also got creative and flashed a bit of showmanship in their presentations to catch the eyes of judges.
St. Augustine of Canterbury’s team from Kendall Park, NJ, SASolar, recast itself as a broadcast news outfit reporting an urgent “breaking news update” of their device unveiling — The Solar Rover — which was inspired by NASA’s rovers, even featuring 3D-printed wheels and headlights.
“This just in to our news station … The Solar Rover just raised water temperature by more than 30 degrees, that’s the best test yet!” exclaimed fifth-grader grader Lucas B., punctuating the team’s presentation.
A team of fourth- and fifth-graders, SASolar, presents breaking news of The Solar Rover. (Front left to right): Sofina B., Lucas B., and Abigail J. (Back row left to right) Emma L., Isak K., and Kendrick M.
By Saturday’s eSTEM Competition’s award ceremony, trophies and medals made at NJIT’s Makerspace were awarded to the winners. “The competition was so intense, the final winners were decided by a fraction … it was incredibly hard to pick,” said Ashish Borgaonkar, NJIT assistant professor of engineering education and eSTEM judge at the ceremony.
In the end, SASolar was named the eSTEM Competition’s gold trophy winner, earning the highest points tally across all the competition’s events. After the ceremony, the tight-knit team issued — what else? — a group statement.
“We were thinking we would fall off our chairs if we had to wait any longer to find out who won … we all started jumping up and down when the judges finally announced us as the winners,” team SASolar said. “It meant a lot to us to be chosen to be on this team from all the other students in our school. We were able to work together as a team and make something so beautiful and creative.”
“It was a great experience to be around other students from other schools that share the same STEM interests as us,” the team added. “We learned many new things about solar energy and the engineering design process, and gained a new confidence in STEM related projects. We all tried our best and truly enjoyed this competition.”
For more about NJIT’s eSTEM Competition and the Center for Pre-College Programs, visit here.
