Abigail Cushman, Technology Editor
@abigailccourant
Although I Cubed: Ideas, Integration, and Innovation Night, more commonly known as Tech Night, was cancelled due to coronavirus school closures, students from middle through high school are still capturing ideas and integration through their innovative projects.
This year, Tech Night prompted students to build with a specific goal in mind. Director of Digital Learning Matthew Salvestrini said that, “we wanted to, while still giving students the opportunity to share how they’re using technology in unique and special ways, put out a challenge for anybody who might want to approach the night by using technology to address real world problems that they see around them.”
Rather than averting students from real world problems, the prompt urges participants to directly solve these problems as children. “We have tremendous students here and they’re great thinkers. Students don’t need to wait until they are ‘adults’ to solve problems. They can solve problems right now and find unique ways to improve the world around us,” Mr. Salvestrini said.
While students of all ages take advantage of the opportunity to innovate, not all chose to guide their project following with optional prompt. “Very often we see that students who innovate as middle schoolers end up creating inventions in technology when they’re high schoolers as well.” Mr. Salvestrini said.
In the past, students have tried to create hovercrafts or zero gravity work, and Mr. Salvestrini has seen middle schoolers do things with water filtration/purification.
This year Senior Pablo Villa has been working on a powered longboard. Pablo has not yet finished the longboard, but has already put 115 hours of work into it. “Last year, I built a ten foot wingspan plane and put like 200 hours into that” he said.
Pablo has constructed technology oriented projects every year since eighth grade, and constructing the longboard has taken true dedication. “It’ll have two batteries in the front that will give me about hopefully ten miles of range and they can reach up to thirty miles per hour. I actually fell off testing it and broke my left elbow, but it’s working,” he said.
It took weeks for Pablo to construct the deck, because of the required detail. He said, “I put together eight layers of bamboo and maple which are only like a sixteenth of an inch thick. I glued them all together in a vacuum bag after making a mold so that there is a curve which helps me plant my feet. That took a while, but it’s worth it.” He has been building it in the wood shop and still has to finish sanding the edges. Then he will apply a clear glossy coat and put the grip tape on top.
Pablo made the design himself, and he said that CTE Department Chair and Technology Education Teacher Mr. Zambrano has been helpful throughout the entire process. “I work on it when I have time and when Mr. Zambrano has time because I care a lot about machinery and he needs to be around,” Pablo said.
Pablo can use physics and mathematics to help with the longboard design, which includes designing the molds. He plans to make these molds out of carbon fiber covers that will be placed over the batteries and electronics. “Then it’ll just all be connected by a wire,” he said. “It’s remote controlled, so one motor controls the acceleration and the breaking. It has regenerative braking built into it, so when I break it puts that energy back into the battery- kind of like Teslas.”
Technology provides an innovative learning opportunity for community members of all ages. “Younger students really seem fascinated by my stuff,” Pablo said. “Some of them stick around and come back and ask other questions. It’s nice to know that kids are interested in what I’m doing and hopefully I’m inspiring them to build something themself.”
