MSOE to host NFPA Fluid Power Challenge
| Published: 10/31/2010 |
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During the Fluid Power Challenge, middle school students learn about fluid power technology (hydraulics and pneumatics) and gain hands-on experience while building a fluid power mechanism with real world applicability. The program is designed to introduce the students, and their teachers, to the world of engineering and fluid power careers.
During the Challenge Day at MSOE, 12 8th-grade teams (four students per team) will design and build fluid power mechanisms that pick an object from one platform, rotate and place it on another. In addition to the number of pick-and-place cycles a school’s machine completes, a review of each team’s design approach, teamwork and portfolio will be used in the final evaluation. While the students are designing their mechanisms, their teachers will spend the morning learning about fluid power from MSOE professors and staff of MSOE’s Fluid Power Institute™ .
A student from a past competition said “This opens up more opportunities for engineering and careers kids aren’t aware of. It’s fun...you get to work with other kids and learn more math and science.”
Through the Challenges, the National Fluid Power Association (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.
The public and representatives of the media are invited to attend the Challenge day on Dec. 13, 2010. NFPA provides a forum for the fluid power industry’s channel partners-manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, customers and educators. Its 335+ U.S. and multinational members work cooperatively in advancing hydraulic and pneumatic technology through the association’s many programs and initiatives.