STEAM Academy students create simple machines in engineering class

Students at Mount Vernon STEAM Academy are applying a semester’s worth of knowledge and scientific principles from Ana Rodriguez’s engineering class to create simple machines for their midterm projects. Students partnered up and got hands-on experience by creating simple machines such as pulleys, wheels and axles, and inclined planes on Wednesday, November 13, 2024. 

Public School Review recently ranked Mount Vernon STEAM Academy as the #22 public high school in Westchester County. To celebrate this ranking, we are taking a deeper look at the innovative programming at the STEAM Academy in a series of articles.

Ms. Rodriguez’s class shuffled in after the bell rang, excited to get started on their midterm projects with one another. Last week, students spent two periods drawing and designing blueprints for their simple machines. Each student was tasked with creating two designs and then partnered with another student to create two simple machines from their designs. 

“This class is very engaging! They really get into building,” said Ms. Rodriguez. “Yesterday I gave them a ten-minute warning, then a five-minute warning, then I actually have to take their screwdrivers away because they don’t want to stop building.” 

Ms. Rodriguez’s engineering class is a part of Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a curriculum utilized at STEAM to get students interested in STEM pathways such as computer science, engineering and biomedical sciences.  PLTW allows students to get real-world, hands-on experience and explore the STEM fields and possible career choices in the future. 

“My favorite part about the engineering class is doing the building,” said Edgar Perez, a 12th grader at STEAM. “It’s interesting making little constructions and doing the group activities. I find the elective very interesting.”