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STEM students get to show off their skills
Simple task made in complex in contest
Engineer WEB
Andrew Rancon, from left, Paul Cromer, Michael Sloan and Austin Flynn set up their device for a STEM Academy challenge Saturday at Forsyth Central High. - photo by Autumn Vetter
While hammering a nail may be a relatively simple task, a group at Forsyth Central High School competed to see who could make it the most complex.Students in the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, Academy took part Saturday in a challenge called “Hammer Time.”Those in the engineering and biotechnology programs worked together in teams of about 10 to design, build and demonstrate Rube Goldberg devices with which to hammer a nail. The devices take a simple task and add numerous steps to make it as complicated as possible.Bill Schuyler, one of the STEM instructors, said students were given the assignment in August, with small tasks to complete throughout the semester to ensure they stayed on track.“Today is a competition and we’ve got judges from Hansgrohe and Siemens who teamed up with three of our teachers to evaluate these guys,” he said. “The main reason we chose to do this … was to build teamwork and boost communications between two different categories — biotech and engineering — by coming together to get to a final stage.”