Medway Middle School Students Receive Design Thinking Award in Mass STEM Hub Online Industry Challenge
From left: Cerissa Gatewood, eighth grade students Colleen Layton, Eva Miranda and Claire Mullen, Claire Sullivan of Mass STEM Hub and Erin Albertian. (Photo courtesy Medway Public Schools)
Principal Amanda Luizzi is pleased to announce that three Medway Middle School students were chosen by industry professionals to be recognized in the Mass STEM Hub Online Industry Challenge.
Eighth grade students Claire Mullen, Eva Miranda and Colleen Layton worked together to design products that help people who are paralyzed get both large and small items from their refrigerators with greater ease. Their project submission was selected to receive the Design Thinking Award.
The students were presented with a certificate from Mass STEM Hub by Medway Middle School teachers Cerissa Gatewood and Erin Albertian on Thursday, Dec. 2.
As the challenge winners, Mullen, Layton and Miranda will also each receive a Rocketbook Smart Notebook.
As part of their project, the students identified the challenges they were attempting to address, designed product prototypes, tested their effectiveness and made adjustments as necessary.
This work was submitted to the Mass STEM Hub Student Industry Connects for Massachusetts STEM Week. The project impressed the industry professionals who reviewed student work from across the Commonwealth with one professional noting that the team did a great job working to improve their design through trial and error testing.
This is Mullen’s and Layton’s second time entering a project for Mass STEM week, and Miranda’s first.
“We are proud to have such creative, hardworking and talented young designers at our school and this is a terrific achievement for Claire, Eva and Colleen,” Principal Luizzi said. “The Mass STEM Hub Student Industry Connects is an excellent opportunity for our students to practice their problem-solving skills and build on what they’ve learned in the classroom, as well as receive valuable feedback from industry professionals.”
In all, nine Medway Middle School students submitted projects to the Mass STEM Hub Student Industry Connects. Each student who submitted a project worked every day after school for an hour and a half during Massachusetts STEM Week to finalize their project.
