The Friday Hack Debuts at Andover High

The Friday Hack debuted this fall at Andover High.  What is the Friday Hack? Students really don't know exactly is going to happen during this event except that they will be given a design challenge to complete during a specified time period while competing on a team of 2-4 students.  The Hack, organized by Director of Strategic Innovation Steve Chinosi and PreK-12 Science Program Coordinator Steve Sanborn, has taken place twice so far on a Friday afternoon after school, once each in November and December and students simply show up to participate.  The November Hack drew about 20 participants who were faced with three progressively more challenging design challenges - first, build the tallest free-standing structure from a single sheet of paper in 15 minutes.

The winning structure, built from one sheet of paper

The second challenge required the construction of a tower from two pieces of paper but this time the highest point of the tower had to be occupied by a tennis ball.

Challenge 2 - tennis ball tower

The third challenge allowed three pieces of paper to build a structure to support a tennis ball that could withstand the force of wind generated from a box fan, again in 15 minutes.

Testing towers against the wind

Competition is underway

The theme during the second Friday Hack (a.k.a. The Holly Hack)  saw more than a doubling of student participation with nearly 50 students showing up to participate in two challenges involving dropping stuff.  During the first challenge, teams were given a rubber balloon and access to numerous common objects - the challenge was to inflate and modify the balloon so that bounced as many times as possible when dropped from the walkway crossing the foyer inside the main entrance of AHS.

Mr. Chinosi gives instructions for the challenge

Students work to improve balloon "bouncability"

Testing time!

The winning balloon bouncers with their Orange Leaf gift card

The second December challenge required student teams to construct something from a bag and three other objects that would float to the ground the slowest when released from the foyer walkway.  

Going with the duel parachute approach

Increasing surface area to increase air resistance

The top two teams - ready for the final drop off

The victors and their simple but effective design

Future Friday Hacks are being planned for 2016 with increasingly complex challenges ahead - more Orange Leaf gift cards await the most creative and best designed solutions to future design challenges.  The objective will continue to offer students a recreational design challenge experience just for the fun of it!

Andover High Students Compete in Women of Science Competition

On Saturday, December 19th, 2015, two teams from Andover High School travelled to Bedford High School to compete in the 13th Annual Women of Science Competition, a day-long science and engineering event during which 40 teams of three women teams competed in four events for glory and cash prizes.

        Front row -  Team 1: Aesha Ghandhi, Emily Hilman, Melanie Hilman
        Back row -  Team 2: Emai Lai, Cindy Pan, Allison MacKenzie

This was the first time teams from Andover High have participated in this event so the teams were not really sure of what to expect.  Prior to the event, each team had been preparing for an event called "Queen of the Air" in which each team constructed flying vehicle powered by either elastic bands and/or a mouse trap. The vehicle could be constructed out of any materials but needed to leave nothing behind on the launch pad after take off.  Team scores were based on distance flown and proximity to a center line.  The launch of the vehicles served as the final event of the competition.

The other three events included an instant design challenge involving the construction of a marshmallow launcher which was then used to try to sink and many marshmallows as possible into a series of target cups.

Marshmallow in flight

The competition also included a lab-based station quiz through which each team visited each of ten stations where they were asked to complete tasks such as identifying parts of anatomical models, solving genetics problems, designing electrical circuits, and identifying tools and lab equipment.  Another event followed a quiz show format in which students answered questions for points.

Pondering a question during the "You BET it's science!" event

One of the special element of the program was a lunch session during which members from different teams were mixed at each table and had the opportunity to have a conversation with a female professional from a science or engineering field.  Participants had the opportunity to have a conversation about their table guest about their education and career pathways and hear about their experiences working in a science or engineering field.

Chatting with a science professional over pizza during the lunch break

All of the Andover participants agreed that the day was well spent and they would return again next year if given the opportunity.  Andover team one was pleased to learn that they finished in seventh place overall.  After an enjoyable day at the 2015 Women of Science Competition, it is highly likely Andover High will be represented again at WOS in 2016.

AHS Students Attend Open House at MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center

The Center for Plasma Science and Fusion at MIT offered an open house event for high school students on December 3, 2015 and seven students from Andover High School joined PreK-12 Science Program Coordinator Steve Sanborn for a fascinating day getting a closer look at the science and research being conducted at the Center.

Liam Moynihan, Ajay Ananthakrishnan, Blavant Singh, Rishi Srinavasan, Yuval Schecter,
Thomas Galligani, and Oliver Nemec donned hard hats to get a closer look at the Tokamak.

The program began with a 45 minute introduction to the science and issues related to nuclear fusion.  During this session, students learned about why nuclear fusion has been such a difficult process to utilize as a source of energy for residential and commercial use despite many years of promises that it could be the answer as an alternative to non-renewable energy sources.

Introductory session to nuclear fusion technology

After the introductory presentation, participating students were divided into multiple tour groups to visit the network of facilities housed at MIT.  Students had the opportunity to see how plasmas are confined, performed hands-on demonstrations with electromagnetism, and reviewed the progress of MIT's plasma experiments, including projects involving the Alcator C-MOD tokamak.  At one stop on the tour, teams of students particiapted in a video game simulations showing how magnetism is used to contain plasmas with temperatures hotter than the sun.

Let the plasma touch the wall of the tokamak and the game is over

On another stop, students were shown equipment used to perform tests on techniques on a smaller scale.

The last stop before lunch and a presentation on electromagnetism was a tour of the tokamak control center along with the unit itself.  Running this "magnetic bottle" to contain the plasma that is generated consumed extraordinary amounts of electricity, one of the reasons that fusion is not yet a cost-effective method for generating power.

Following a post-lunch series of demonstrations on electromagnetism and energy, the open house program concluded after a very interesting and informative day at MIT.

To view a 3D interactive image of the inside of the tokamak, visit the following link: http://research.psfc.mit.edu/alcator/cmod-tour.html .