Hydraulic competition draws 16 schools to Penn State-Fayette
Brownsville 8th-grader Rylee Zamiska, 13, saws part of a lifting arm off part of the framework for her team’s project at the Williams Fluid Power Challenge.
Troy Pellick, 14, and Rylee Zamiska, 13, 8th-graders at Brownsville Area High School, assemble lift arms for their machine. Sixteen local schools brought 29 teams to Penn State-Fayette to compete in the Williams Fluid Power Challenge, where they built hydraulic machines powered by syringes and plastic tubing.
Addison Wilhelm, 12, a 7th-grader at Uniontown Area’s AJ McMullen Middle School, helps her classmate Mickeala Cameron, right, a 13-year-old 8th-grader, as they work on constructing their hydraulic lifting machine at the Williams Fluid Power Challenge at Penn State Fayette.
From left, Brownsville 8th-grader Rylee Zamiska overlooks as Troy Pellick, Julianna Skelton, and Ashleigh Carney assemble their hydraulic lift machine, which is powered by strategically placed syringes with can push and pull various components of their machine. The team's objective was to build a model that could pick up a cylinder and move it, to simulate a machine that had to move a toxic waste barrel.
Hydraulics, pneumatics and the basics of engineering were on display Nov. 17 at the third annual Williams Fluid Power Challenge at Penn State-Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
“It is a great opportunity for students to get a first-hand look at the engineering process, and experience some teamwork,” said John Kerekes, a science teacher at Belle Vernon Area Middle School.
“Basically, we just make a device and syringes do different parts of the competition,” said Cody Lowder, an eighth-grader at A.J. McMullen Middle School, along the National Pike between Farmington and Markleysburg.
“We have two that lift the machine, one that opens and closes to grab the cylinder, then you have another syringe to rotate the device,” said Mickey Cameron, another eighth-grader at A.J. McMullen, one of three Uniontown Area district schools sending teams to the competition in the auxiliary gymnasium on the first floor of the campus community center.
Uniontown Area’s Lafayette and Ben Franklin middle schools also sent teams to the competition centered around moving cylinders during a two-minute demonstration in order to score points.
Each two-foot-high cylinder weighed approximately 1½ ounces and is weighed down with a metal washer 1 3/8 inches in diameter.
“We created a machine that picks up an object and moves it to another point, from Point A to Point B over a lift,” Lowder said. “It’s done by hydraulic power and pneumatics.”
There also was an interview with a team of volunteer engineers from sponsors Williams, a natural gas infrastructure company with offices in Connellsville and Pittsburgh, and Johnson Matthey, a chemical company with a Smithfield Township plant that specializes in sustainable technologies.
Among 29 teams from 16 districts in Fayette, Greene, Westmoreland and Armstrong counties, only Hempfield Area had as many teams on hand as did Uniontown Area – and all three of its middle schools brought home awards in what was almost a Westmoreland sweep.
Hempfield Area’s Harrold Middle School won first place, second place went to Leechburg Area Middle School (in a district straddling the Kiskiminetas River covering parts of Armstrong and Westmoreland) and Hempfield Area’s Wendover Middle School was third.
Harrold also took the trophy for best design, Franklin Regional’s Team 1 was judged to have the best teamwork and West Hempfield had the best portfolio.
Still, “you all did exceedingly well,” Fayette Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Muriel J. Nuttall told all in attendance.
Some traveled far to get to the competition. Participation ranged from Jefferson-Morgan in Greene County to Leechburg Area and neighboring Freeport Area which takes in Butler and Armstrong county students.
In-between were Albert Gallatin North and South middle schools, two teams each from Belle Vernon Area, Brownsville Area, Connellsville Area, Frazier and Laurel Highlands middle schools in Fayette County; and Greater Latrobe Junior High School, Yough Intermediate Middle School and two teams each from Franklin Regional, Mt. Pleasant Area and Norwin middle schools in Westmoreland County.
Most of the schools are repeat competitors.
“This is our first attempt,” said Randy Kozura, another science teacher from Belle Vernon Area. “I think we did good for a first attempt. We learned a lot from our mistakes this time.”
Each team was given the same kit following a workshop on Sept. 29 at the Eberly Campus. However, Nuttall pointed out, “All of your machines look very, very different.”
“Every team has a different design, based on what they thought would work best,” said Sheri Cramblit, who handles community and strategic outreach for Williams.
“It was definitely hard to think of a design,” said Lindsay Sethman, one of four members of Team 2 from Brownsville Area Middle School.
“Eventually we made it there,” Lindsay’s classmate Riley Dobish said.
“They have a problem where they have to apply the things they learned (on Sept. 29) to the challenge,” Cramblit said. “They went back to their schools (where) they figured out how they would design it.”
The youngsters worked with one kit on Sept. 29. On Nov. 17 they received another and built their designs from scratch.
“When we were thinking of our design, we had to consider a couple different factors,” said Brooklyn Williams, a seventh-grader at A.J. McMullen.
“We had to make sure it was stable,” Williams went on. “We had to make sure that it would move from Point A to Point B quickly. We needed to make surethat the grabbing arm could grab the cylinder without dropping it.”
After getting time to turn designs into working models, the 29 teams had lunch, had the pictures taken, and then had their chance to beat the clock.
“There will be a quiet, controlled chaos here for a little bit,” said Nuttall, also on hand in her role as co-chair of the Fayette Business Education Partnership, another sponsor of the challenge.
Those who wanted to see the competition close up could do so over a closed-circuit television system used in the Penn State gymnasium.
In addition to the timed competition, judging focused on teamwork, device design and safety, as well as portfolios submitted by each team.
Blue T-shirts worn by participants listed other sponsors: Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, 84 Lumber, Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, the Redstone Foundation, Westmoreland/Fayette Workforce Investment Board, Stahls’ Decorating Fulfillment Center in Masontown, Pennsylvania Small Business Education Fund, SMC Business Councils and the National Fluid Power Association’s Education and Technology Foundation.
“It was fun doing it,” said Carlos Ramirez, and eighth-grader on Brownsville Area Middle School’s Team 2.
“We had fun,” Belle Vernon Area eighth-grader Mara Sharder said. “We had a really good time.”
As principal sponsor, Williams covered most of the cost for each team, $500, with the schools obliged to pay only $25 per team plus transportation costs.
Organizers and sponsors of the challenge hope to encourage participants to select more mathematics and science courses in their high school curricula, and to keep their options open for technology-based postsecondary studies.