The Class: Upper School Engineering 2

The Teacher: Science Teacher Matt Palubinskas

The Project: How do you design, document, and build like an engineer? The Engineering 2 Energy Transfer Vehicle Challenge guides Upper School Pumas to work together to methodically document and execute their plan to propel their self-built car a predetermined distance. 

Students are first split into groups to begin designing their vehicle, with a few limits: The vehicle cannot be remotely controlled or tethered; must be no larger than half a meter in length, half a meter in width, and one meter in height; and must include a 3D-printed part that is integral to the objective of the vehicle. A variety of materials are made available, such as wood, meter sticks, LEGOs, dowels, axles, pulleys, string, and more. Students are even encouraged to request specific materials for their vehicle from their teacher.

Students must ensure their vehicle can be powered only by the gravitational potential energy of a one kilogram weight dropping one meter. The project focuses on the conservation of energy and transfer of energy, as the energy of the falling mass must be converted to kinetic energy to move the vehicle. 

Our Puma engineers have 11 days to design, build, and test their vehicles before “Challenge Day,” when students are given a specific distance that their vehicle must travel in order to succeed. This distance is not disclosed until Challenge Day, which means students must practice propelling their vehicle across different distances to ensure they know what to change to meet distance requirements on the day-of. 

Throughout the entire project, students are required to document everything—their materials, design process, systems, metrics—for their engineering design process. 

The Goals: Matt aims for students to be able to document their engineering design process over the course of the project, and to understand why this process matters for engineers. Students’ grades rely on the documentation of their build.  

“They might not be the engineer in the future that works on that same project,” said Matt. “They have to document what they do, step by step, so other engineers from the future can look at it and understand it.” 

Another goal of the project is to give students space to work on collaboration skills. While communication doesn’t seem like the first skill an engineer needs, Matt emphasizes that communication between peers is key to collaborate effectively. 

What I’ve Learned: Junior Eleena B. loves the creative process that comes along with designing a build. 

“I don’t know my group mates very well, but it’s been really fun hearing all their different ideas. We spent half of class yesterday covering our entire car in multicolored duct tape,” Eleena said while laughing. 

Xander K., 9th grade, highlights the demonstration of different kinds of energy in the project. 

“Energy can’t be destroyed or created, but can only be transformed. So we are using that basic principle to try to transform energy,” Xander said. “I mean, it’s a kinetic force to kinetic force, but you have to kind of figure out how you direct that force, which is really interesting.” 

Similarly to Eleena, Xander appreciates that though the class focuses on engineering, he can be creative in the design process. 

“I really enjoy the first step of the process, which is making the ideas. I like brainstorming, coming up with all the things that could work, and filling out all the potential solutions to a singular problem and the many like paths that I could take,” Xander said, “and then I enjoy the final assembly and seeing it in action.” 

Meet Science Teacher Matt Palubinskas: Matt stumbled into teaching. With his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics and a PhD focused on molecular biology and biophysics, he only took one science education class before he began teaching at his university. 

Matt taught physics and chemistry in Vermont before coming to UPrep, including at the University of Vermont, Bellows Free Academy, and Vermont Commons School. Matt is now in his 18th year leading a life of learning at UPrep. 

“I love teaching because I love being a student, and I feel like it's one of the few jobs where you can continuously learn,” said Matt. “I like something dynamic. I feel like teaching is very dynamic. I love creating courses. I’ve created so many different courses here, so much curriculum, it keeps my mind active.” 

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