Our host with the Sharks.
by Jack Becker ’21
On this week’s episode of Shark Tank, we replaced the usual entrepreneurs with budding engineers. The sharks were Jackson Juska ’21, Shannon Liu ’21, Renee Tremblay ’20, and Isa Hill ’20 who were accompanied by our host, Hank Rouland ’21. Our Sharks were on the hunt for ideas to allow young kids to find excitement in engineering related activities for our upcoming Engineering Day, scheduled for October 20th. The Sharks watched Webb students and Professor Bradley Golden ’99 present ideas that they thought would educate and entertain young students.
After sixteen exceptional presentations, the Sharks picked their top ideas for Engineering Day. Maggie Maguire ’21 won two of the four bids with her Sky-Floater experiment and with her Water Weight-Lifter. For Maggie’s Sky-Floater experiment, the students will play with balloons to learn about pressure. With the Weight-Lifter, they will use the principles of a turbine to lift a weight.
Along with Maggie’s success, Professor Golden ’99 and his daughter, Rhiannon, won with their Dowel Tower idea. In this fun-spirited competition, the students will have 20 minutes to build the largest tower possible out of wooden dowels and rubber bands. While building this tower, students will learn about statics as they build their structures.
Finally, Luke Herbermann ’21 and Sean Healy’s ’21 presented their idea about erosion. In this experiment, using sand and water, the student’s will look at real-life ideas to help prevent erosion in the future.
Through all these great ideas, the students on Engineering Day will get to see the world from a different point of view. These experiments will broaden their horizons as they see and play with solutions to everyday problems and possibly create future engineers!
About Engineering Day
Engineering Day is a free community event, with the goal to spark student interest and involvement in the sciences at a young age. All students in 4th-6th grades are welcome to attend. Guided by Webb alumni and students, participating students rotate through engineering challenges covering several disciplines including: civil engineering, naval architecture, aerospace engineering, and chemistry.
