JCPS Youth Create Maze With Science Collab

Absolute Automation and Electrical Services (AAA) collaborated with the Jasper County Primary School (JCPS) STEM lab to construct a maze for the school hamster Apple Crunch.

JCPS students have been designing and constructing mazes for Apple Crunch using various materials such as cardboard and popsicle sticks this school year. Mechanical Engineer Bob Swarner owner of AAA heard about the project and volunteered to design a maze that has movable walls for students to make adjustments. The maze was constructed using a laser cutter and made of plexiglas. Standard peg boards are the base of the maze and are surrounded by clear plexiglas walls. The top is removable so students can open and insert walls. The walls have peg hooks that fit into the peg board base allowing for infinite maze combinations.

Mr. Swarner also used a 3D printer to print purple and gray corners and straight connectors and had several consultations with STEM teacher Elizabeth Proctor to design a safe maze that would allow students to view Apple Crunch’s progress and keep it safe. This customizable maze allows students to truly engage with the engineering design process (EDP) by starting over and retesting possible combinations. Students spent the afternoon planning possible designs for the maze using the engineering plans. The plans are a scale model of the actual maze and students quickly recognized that the dots on the plans corresponded to a hole on the actual maze. Students used scaled plastic pieces to represent the various sizes of maze walls to layout possible combinations.

Apple Crunch is looking forward to solving all challenges, she solved her first maze in less than 15 seconds. She is a very smart hamster and ready for all the maze combinations students will design and construct. This collaboration supports JCPS efforts to teach EDP.

JCPS is implementing a customized EDP process using the acronym CANES. This EDP starts with the letter C which represents the word care. Students write about why they care about the problem. The second letter A represents the word ask. Before solving problems students consider what questions they need to ask to learn about a problem. The letter N stands for what we need to solve this problem. Students consider partners, materials, time and space needed to work on solving the problem. The letter E stands for experimentation. The experimentation phase of the EDP is the favorite part for every JCPS student. The last letter S stands for how we can share with others what we have discovered. Teaching the EDP as the k-2 level prepares our students to be problem solvers.

Mrs. Proctor continues to work with community partners such as Mr. Swarner to expand the knowledge of the youngest engineers and to have a love for inquiry and learning. In the photo (left to right) are second graders Karlie Sands, Easton Hayslip, Brayden Brand, Marcus Buck, JT Ellis, Scarlett Thomas, Bryson Cosby, teacher J. Lackey with Apple Crunch, Carmon Buck, and Kes Harty.