Engineering students beat the clock to help Science Central add new exhibit

A group of seven Purdue University Fort Wayne engineering students finally saw a year-long project come to completion—and they earned a spotlight location to show it off.

After brainstorming throughout the fall semester, members of the engineering fundamentals 2 course taught by Claudio Freitas, assistant professor of first-year engineering, worked throughout the spring to complete the unique assignment. In hopes of giving his students more practical experience, Freitas had been pitching collaboration ideas to one of Fort Wayne’s most popular attractions.

“We needed to renew our efforts to provide a new science exhibit that could be used at Science Central,” Freitas said. “Another goal was to show students how to use the design process and how to apply the engineering they are learning by giving them something practical.”

More than 40 ideas were proposed, but the one Science Central selected about a year ago is called Power Playground, which teaches third and fourth grade students to understand how electrical circuits work. With 16 holes on what is essentially a tabletop, youngsters can experiment with various circuits, such as activating fans, lights, and sounds, to see how connected circuits function.

“Children are so excited to see something new on our museum floor,” said Sarah Vise, manager of Science Central’s planetarium and science on a sphere learning spaces. “They run up to it immediately and begin tinkering. These kids instinctively know exactly what to do, due to the amazing design of the exhibit. The visitors get so much enjoyment out of seeing their experimenting produce lights and sounds.”

As Kelly Keuneke-Marts, manager of Science Central’s exhibits and facilities said, “Children love beating it up! They're instantly attracted to the colors and they treat it as a puzzle, which circuitry is. They do love seeing how many lights they can link up.”

The PFW students needed to design, paint, build, and connect all the wiring to make sure things worked, beating an end-of-the-semester deadline by just a matter of days. That meant there were several late nights spent in the Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science building, in addition to finals, working to earn project approval from Science Central. Some of the finishing touches actually took place a few days after commencement.

The work included 65 3D-printed blocks, some of which had to be tried again, to round off sharp corners, which could potentially injure children. There was also extra padding added to the corners of the table.

On one occasion, the team worked until 2 a.m. before returning just a few hours later. The final version was moved to Science Central on May 15 before being publicly unveiled May 17.

“This lets them make something more meaningful,” Freitas said. “These kinds of projects give them a more meaningful connection to the content and a sense of ownership.”

The students on the team included Michael Tapp, Max Smith, Emma Lancaster, Josias Tadie, Allison Stookey, Reece Lobsiger, and Abdiel Sedano, all juniors. Smith, Tapp, and Lancaster are majoring in mechanical engineering; Stookey and Sedano in electrical engineering; Lobsiger in civil engineering; and Tadie in mathematics.

“I learned that the engineering part is fun to know, and then it comes to making everything stick together, where you have to be creative and use things that you don’t learn in class,” Tadie said. “You just have to figure out something to make it work, and that was the most fun part.”

They also learned one of the most important practices in engineering has to be communication between everyone working on a project. That communication also led to new friendships being formed.  

“They all work together so well,” Vise said. “It's inspiring to see from a group of engineering experts—it embodies the heart of science exploration, collaborative effort. I love working with older students on a creative piece like Power Playground because they each have their own skills, interests, and personality traits that each influence part of the final project.”

Vise said she can’t wait to work on future projects with Freitas because she appreciated his passion and patience with the PFW students.