Technology events take off at Springside

by MEG CHARENDOFF

Cameron Tucker lets her team’s glider soar in The Great Balsa Wood Glider Challenge, part of the annual Phyzyx Fest at Springside School.  The gliders, which were designed and constructed in two and a half hours, competed for time aloft and distance, accuracy, and creativity of design.

This was no ordinary school science fair. There were no potato-powered batteries. No papier-mâché solar systems. No poster-board displays.

And no boys. This was Springside School’s celebration of science and technology — two weeks of speakers, demonstrations, competitions and other events in early May highlighting the sciences and environmental learning.

“This is the whole point of what we’re doing at Springside,” said Scott Stein, head of the school’s science department. “If we’re not turning more girls onto science, we’re not doing our job.”

Science is integrated into the curriculum at Springside from pre-k to grade 12. And the learning is hands-on.

“Tinkering, designing, testing hypotheses. Looking at the way things happen in the real world. That’s real science, hands-on science, not glorified scientific demonstrations,” says Stein.

In one of the many events of Science and Technology Weeks, sixth graders presented their WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment) research projects: “Global Warming — Who’s to Blame?” WISE, a UC Berkeley designed computer interface, engages students in research about current controversies in science. At the end of their research, the girls reviewed their information, constructed arguments and designed debates to support their positions, all within the WISE environment. Students will also engage in a transglobal debate with students from China who researched the same issue.

At the Technology Leaders Lunch, another Science and Technology Weeks event, upper school girls from the Technology Leaders Program met with students from La Salle College High School’s Lab Manager Program to share their experiences as student teachers and mentors. Through the Technology Leaders Program, technologically fluent students help fill the demand for tech support throughout Springside, both by assisting the professional tech team in answering tech-related requests and by working directly with teachers, one-on-one or in small groups. The technology leaders also assist other students with technology-related issues.  

“It’s just been fabulous to watch the community-building right in front of my eyes,” says DeGennaro. “The kids are really taking a lead. They have felt empowered to teach each other. They’re learning to be open to learning from others — regardless of age. These girls are learning that everyone around them is a resource ... no one holds all the knowledge — we are all learning together.”

High-flying competition

Science and Technology Weeks, which were underwritten by Springside’s “Physics for Every Girl” grant from the E. E. Ford Foundation, ended on a high-flying note with Phyzyxfest – Just Fly It: The Great Balsa Wood Glider Challenge.

“Phyzyxfest is finally here!” shouted Stein to applause and cheers from the crowd of 200 girls, seventh through tenth graders. “And there’s gonna be prizes!”

After briefly explaining the challenge — using Gliders by Design engineering software, each team was to design, build and fly a balsa wood glider – Stein dispatched the 50 four-girl teams (each team had one student from each of the four grades). “See you on the launch pad!” he called.  

In the science labs around the school, the hubbub of shouted comments — about sports, clothes, friends and boys — gave way to whispered consultations as the girls booted up their laptops.

After they received their computer disk, seventh-grader Courtney Caputo, eighth-grader Liz Bondelid, ninth-grader Tija Bross and tenth-grader Kalie Birnbaum (otherwise known as Team 6) set to work. With Birnbaum at the computer, they tested variable after variable, scribbling down numbers as the program prompted “needs work” or “getting better” after each simulated test flight. The girls discussed modifications, worked through design flaws and were finally ready to build.

After a few production glitches and a break for lunch, Team 6 completed construction of their glider and took it to the launch site for testing.

“The launch pad is ready for you!” Stein shouted over the blare of rock music from a boom-box. At the launch site — marked out with yellow caution tape on the hill outside the school’s entrance at Willow Grove Avenue and Cherokee Street — girls hurled their gliders into the air. Many were decorated with stripes, American flags, flames, dots and the Springside Lion’s logo, and they sported names like Beast, Die Hard and Glam. The girls shrieked and moaned as planes flew off course, into walls and trees.

“That’s good disaster footage,” joked Stein as one glider crash-landed into a retaining wall.  

Team 6’s test flights did not go well. 

“We were doing okay, but then we made a change he suggested,” said Bross, glaring in mock-anger at Stein. “We crashed, the fuselage cracked and we had to repair it.” Several more test flights led to more modifications — widening the body and then trimming it again, adjusting the ballast, shaping the nose. Then, right before the start of the competition, a crash landing caused damage so severe that Team 6’s plane had to be rebuilt from scratch. They worked frantically, with Bross on one end and Birnbaum on the other.  

“We were making random changes to see what would happen,” said Bross. “And then we just had to rebuild it without measurements.”

At the end of Phyzyxfest, gliders were judged on flight (distance traveled multiplied by time aloft) and accuracy (landing distance to a bulls-eye in the center of the launch site). 

As the wind kicked up on the hill, Bross launched Team 6’s rebuilt plane. The glider loop-de-looped and came to rest a short distance down the hill. The effort left Team 6 well out of medal contention. A second flight, launched by Birnbaum, didn’t turn out much better.

“We’re doing so much worse than our test flights,” complained Bross. “I would like to win. To take home the first place medal,” she confessed. She and Birnbaum debated a third flight and decided against it. Team 6 was too far out of the running. 

Team 31, with seventh-grader Whitney Levitt, eighth-grader Lauren Morgan, ninth-grader Arjona Papaj and tenth-grader Eliza Morse, claimed the first prize medals in both the flight and accuracy competitions.

In the creativity in design category, first place went to Team 35 — seventh-grader Michal Patchefsky, eighth-grader Katherine Roberts, ninth-grader Sophia Petrillo, tenth-grader Maegan Rao — and their glider "Big Bertha."

Bross admitted Phyzyxfest was “cool” anyway, even if her team didn’t win. Birnbaum, a veteran of several local and regional science fairs, agreed. “It was really, really fun,” she said. And definitely not an ordinary science fair.