Past Fluid Power Challenge Events

 

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2010 NFPA Fluid Power Challenge

December 2010

On December 13, the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) in Milwaukee, WI held a Fluid Power Challenge, with ten teams competing. The Overall Champion winner was Starbuck Middle School, Team B, from Racine, WI.   . . .Read more
 


On December 9, Deltrol Fluid Products hosted a Challenge at Harper College in Palatine, IL. Sixteen teams competed altogether, and Heineman Team 2 was the winner.



On December 3, Daman Products Company, Inc. sponsored a Challenge event at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, IN. Sixty-four eighth graders from the South Bend (IN) Community School Corporation participated. Greene Intermediate Center received the Overall Champion Award.
. . .Read more

April 2010

NFPA's Fluid Power Challenge was part of the inaugural Boiler Tech Challenge 2010 held at the Purdue College of Technology in Columbus, IN on April 23. Over 160 high school students from the area participated and competed in this Project Lead the Way-affiliated event.
       During the Boiler Tech Challenge, students worked in teams of four on a variety of engineering-oriented challenges—Build It, Design It, Invent It, Survive It and Tape It—which included fluid power. They used imagination, teamwork and problem solving to provide innovative solutions to complex engineering challenges.

 

March 2010

 

On March 19 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, two teams from Fritsche Middle School competed against three teams from Bay View High School. The competition was featured in a story on Fox 6 by Gus Gnorski, Fox 6 Reporter.

Bay View High School vs. Fritsche Middle School was featured on Fox 6.

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2009 NFPA Fluid Power Challenge
 

In 2009, the NFPA Fluid Power Challenge was expanded to four locations:

Marquette University Milwaukee, WI	University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN	Harper College Palatine, IL	Milw. School of Engineering Milwaukee, WI

 

Altogether, 47 teams competed—a total of 200 eighth grade students from 26 middle schools. At workshops in early November, the students were given the assignment of designing and constructing a fluid power mechanism to perform a defined task. The mechanisms were required to use fluid power (hydraulics and pneumatics) to pick up weighted objects, and then place them on a platform for various point totals.

After working for five weeks, the teams came together again to compete against each other in a two-minute competition. Engineers from area companies served as judges, who graded the teams and presented awards in five categories—Overall Champion, Design Champion, Teamwork Champion, Portfolio Champion and Team Challenge Champion.

"We learned that it is fun to design and build things and to work as a team," said one student after the competition.

This video highlights the winning team, Highland Park Junior High, in 
the 2009 NFPA Fluid Power Challenge held at the University of Minnesota 
and hosted by the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power.

Thank you 2009 NFPA Fluid Power Challenge sponsors!

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2008 December NFPA Fluid Power Challenge

           

The 2008 NFPA Fluid Power Challenge was held at the Milwaukee School of Engineering on
November 14, 2008, Workshop Day, and December 12, 2008, Challenge Day. At the Workshop
Day, twenty teams from throughout Wisconsin and northern Illinois learned about fluid power
and built a pneumatic lifter.

Participating schools included:

   Fritsche Middle School, Milwaukee, WI
   Hartford University School, Milwaukee, WI
   Heineman Middle School, Algonquin, IL
   Hmong American Peace Academy, Milwaukee, WI
   Luxemburg-Casco Middle School, Luxemburg, WI
   Marlowe Middle School, Lake in the Hills, IL
   New Berlin Eisenhower Middle School, New Berlin, WI
   Starbuck Middle School, Racine, WI
   Vieau Middle School, Milwaukee, WI

During the weeks between the Workshop Day and Challenge Day, the teams were busy at work designing, building and testing their fluid power prototypes. 

On the Challenge Day, the teams again met at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The nineteen remaining teams competed to solve a fluid power challenge by designing and constructing a mechanism that used hydraulics technology to pick a canister from one platform, rotate, and place it on another platform. The teams were evaluated on the number of pick-and-place cycles their machine completed as well as a review of each team's design, portfolio and teamwork.

Everyone, teachers, students, parents, and NFPA member company sponsors were excited and enthusiastic about the program. Teacher comments from the feed backform included:

“Kids loved it. Their attention has never been this focused in class!”
Scott Jex, Hmong American Peace Academy

“Real world experience. Engineering at it's best.”
Joe Kempke, Luxemburg-Casco Middle School

“WOW! Critical thinking and problem solving skills help in everyday life & the kids rose to the challenge.”
Elaine Lorinczi, Marlowe Middle School

Student comments about the Challenge included, “exciting,” “very fun,” “educational,” “really cool” and “opening doors for me to learn more.” One student said he would recommend the Challenge to any 7th grader he knew “so they can have the same fun I did today (Challenge Day).”

A parent who attended the program said it was “perfect. The teams (and students) were totally focused.”

The NFPA Fluid Power Challenge provides Middle School students with information about fluid power technology and hands-on experience building a fluid power mechanism with real world applicability. 

Thank you to the Canadian Fluid Power Association and the following businesses for their support of the December 2008 Challenge.

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2008 May NFPA Fluid Power Challenge

The very first National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) Fluid Power Challenge, was held on Friday, May 9th at the Kettle Moraine High School (Wales, WI).

The 2008 competition, attended by three teams from three Wisconsin Middle
Schools, was won by the team of grade eight students from Luxemburg-Casco
Middle School (Luxemburg, WI).

  View Slide Show 

	Luxemburg-Casco Middle School

The three teams designed and constructed a mechanism that used hydraulics technology to perform a defined task. The students were asked to design and build fluid-power mechanisms for picking an object from one platform, rotating, and placing it on another platform. The teams were evaluated on the number of pick-and-place cycles a school's machine completes as well as a review of each team's design approach documented through the use of a design portfolio.

Kettle Moraine Middle School and Hmong American Peace Academy (Milwaukee, WI) were runners up. Ryan Nihoris, a student on the Kettle Moraine team, said “This opens up more opportunities for engineering and careers kids aren't aware of. It's fun...you develop teamwork and leadership skills and meet kids from different schools.”
To see these teams compete, click on these video links:

Kettle Moraine Middle School	Hmong American Peace Academy

The NFPA Fluid Power Challenge is intended to provide Middle School students with information about fluid power technology and hands-on experience building a fluid power mechanism with real world applicability, as well as opening their eyes and those of their teachers to the world of engineering and fluid power careers. NFPA hopes to encourage students to select more mathematics and science courses in their high school curricula to keep their options open for technology-based post-secondary studies.

NFPA would like to thank the Canadian Fluid Power Association and the following businesses for their support of the May 2008 Challenge.

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To learn more about the Challenge, please contact Carrie Tatman Schwartz, Program Manager at ctschwartz@nfpa.com or (414) 778-3347.