May 2008 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
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:
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.
To learn more about the Challenge, please contact Carrie
Tatman Schwartz, Program Manager at
ctschwartz@nfpa.com
or (414) 778-3347.