ORMA’s Steam program supports the development of 21-century skills such as persistence, adaptive problem solving, and collaboration. This creates a learning enviroment where failure is accepted and persistence is celebrated. Challenges are centered around Cadet interests and intentionally connects engineering,design and technology laying the groundwork for college or career opportunities.
The Cadets have worked on several different steam projects. The most current projects have exposed the Cadets to engineering and physics based tasks. The Cadets built mock roller coasters using pool noodles and steel ball bearings. They were required to have atleast one loop in their design. The roller coasters were tested and data collected from their designs. The idea behind the design was to illustrate kinetic and potential energy by building a roller coaster that was completely driven by gravity.
The next activity involved building a protype paper air plane. The Cadets tested their air planes under different enviromental conditions (hallway and outside) for time in the air and distance. They were offered the opportunity to redesign their air planes and the updated craft was retested under differing conditions. They observed and measured the data to compare their results. This hands-on activity stressed motion and momentum while explaining how protypes and redesigns are necessary to improve performance.
