Liggett Engineering Students Create Games

juniors Eric Streebing, Daria Lewis and senior Jessie Lucero garnered many ideas from the first graders they interviewed for their engineering project but one theme emerged: robots. 

"First graders loved robots," Streebing said, noting that is how they began building their game, called Robot Factory. In the game, players draw a science question and if the get it correct, they earn a card for a body part. Once they've received a body part card twice, they receive that body part and can begin building their robot. 

This was one of six games created by University Liggett engineering students, who were required to do the project from the research stages through the marketing portion. The fifteen students were put into groups of two or three and were required to generate an idea that doesn't exist and would be of interest to a first grader, teacher Kim Galea said. 

"It seems like they are having too much fun," Galea said. "They are learning a lot and that (engineering) is not just the nerdy career."

Part of her focus is to enlighten the students that engineering involves much more than the automotive world and that it requires the application of many different kinds of skills to complete a project from beginning to end. 

One project got the attention of the first graders near the end of their play session: Velcro Dodgeball. 

Junior Patrick Monahan, 17, and senior Adam Lavers, 17, began their project by remembering what kids play in the first grade. Monahan said they also noticed many of the other teams were creating board games and they wanted to offer a more physical game. 

"We remembered in gym class always arguing about who got hit," Monahan said. "This will make it easier with kids and teachers. You can't argue if you have a ball stuck to you."

The hardest part of their project was determining the correct type of velcro to use, he said. The team believes their game was a success, especially after Lavers put the vest on and allowed the first graders to try to hit him with the velcro wrapped tennis ball. 

First graders had to grade the games by saying whether or not they liked it and were given room to add a comment if they wanted. This will be taken into consideration by Galea for the upper school students' grades, she said. 

This is the first year for the class and the project, she said, noting she'll do it again next year. Head of the Upper School Trey Cassidy said the class has been a success and explained how earlier in the year they did a similar project with disabled veterans in which the prototype created was given to the veteran afterward.

First grade teacher Peggy Dettlinger said it was great for her students to see the project from beginning to end and see how the upper students truly incorporated the first graders ideas into their projects.