By MaryMargaret Portera
MSSM student correspondent
LIMESTONE — On Saturday, April 2, students at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics participated in what they like to call “Themed Weekend.” During this themed weekend, students saw presentations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and an engineer from the University of Maine. Students working with NOAA staff learned about weather patterns, discussed storms, and watched informational videos of storm chasers.
Photo contributed by MaryMargaret Portera
MSSM students MaryMargaret Portera, middle, and John Massey, right lower their wind turbine into the pool with the assistance of MSSM math teacher Luke Shorty.
Rachel Olugbemi, a sophomore from Presque Isle, feels that she got quite a lot out of her experience with NOAA. “I enjoyed finding out how the weather forecasts that effect my life are made, and even learned about another potential career path,” she said.
Students with the University of Maine presenter spent some time looking at different types of wind turbines, and then attempted to make some of their own. About 55 students broke up into 11 groups to participate in the Wind Storm Challenge.
This was the MSSM’s second year participating in this challenge. To begin, participating students were awarded 100 fictitious dollars and “bought” materials that were auctioned off to them. They then spent an hour and a half constructing wind turbines out of materials such as foam, large buckets, twine, fishing wire, PVC pipes, wooden dowels, and nuts and bolts for weights. They then went to work on their calculations to determine what the weight of their wind turbines would need to be in order to float, and nine out of the 11 teams had successful wind turbines just two hours later.
Though it cost them most of their Saturday, some of the students enjoyed their experience in the wind mill challenge. “More teams were successful, and it was a vastly improved experience over last year. I hope it will be an even better experience for students in the future,” said senior Seth Lockman of Saco.
Staff members felt it was a good use of the day as well. “Students gained a lot of hands-on problem solving experience,” said Residential Intern Hannah Olson.
Other people just had a lot of fun with the entire experience. “Our turbine was called Mr. T, subscript Turbine and had a slogan of ‘I pity the turbine that doesn’t have a chain like that.’ It was pretty boss and I enjoyed the challenge of creating something I had never worked with before,” said sophomore Hayley Frank of Saco.
