MERCEDES — It’s the end of the school year and the beginning of dreams.
Seniors at the Science Academy of South Texas presented their end-of-year projects Friday to solve a variety of problems, including date rape, driving and texting, and preventing mosquito-borne diseases.
Seniors at Science Academy are required to present a group project each year before graduation.
They presented those projects at the fourth annual Engineering Design and Development “EDD Presents 4.0” Conference.
Judges from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and other institutions observed 63 presentations by about 180 Science Academy seniors.
Adrian Del Bosque and his team took first place for their project titled, “Preventing Weight-Lifting Injuries.”
The keynote speaker was Vince Bertram, president and chief executive officer of Project Lead the Way.
Vince Bertram, keynote speaker
“Basically the kinds these students are demonstrating are in high demand by companies around the world. It’s helping them understand and explain problem solving, critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills and something called the grown mindset. The idea that after you get your college degree you’re always learning. These students are very impressive. They have been really working on solutions.”
Jonathan Danielson, 18
His group tackled the problem of date rape by proposing a tube which could test a drink
“Our project is a date rape prevention device. This is the drink.” He gestured toward a drink held by one of his teammates. “You put the straw in here and test it. You put the straw in and then take a sip. You draw the liquid into this test chamber. It doesn’t go back into the straw. It can’t go back. I feel like it went really well. We’ve been working on this since the beginning of the year.”
Adrian Del Bosque
His group developed a mechanism to prevent injuries while people are using a bench press in a weight room. The device has small motors that automatically stop a bar from falling and injuring someone. They had just given their presentation.
“It went very well,” said Adrian, 17. “They are showing a lot of projects. A lot of students don’t have that.”
Later in the day they were jubilant after winning first place.
“We worked hard at developing a solution,” Adrian said.
Gabe Valdez, EDD teacher at Science Academy
“I feel like the students really did a great job of telling not only what they used in engineering and science classes but also math and other classes, bringing it all together.”
Jim Konecny, EDD teacher at Science Academy:
“These students have skills that are going to be essential when they get to college.”
