OTTAWA, Ohio (WLIO) - 7th grade students at Ottawa Glandorf are celebrating a special kind of win. These students were given the opportunity to take on and compete at the annual Ohio STEM learning network design challenge by coming up with a modern problem, deep diving into the topic, and finding a solution to benefit the community.
One group at OG worked extra hard to learn about the current problem of school buses not being good for our environment and kids’ health. These students went above and beyond by testing air quality, conducting independent research, and interviewing experts. Through their tedious work, students Addicyn, Ava, and Isabella won first place, taking home the state championship title.
Their win wasn't easy, however, as they faced some challenges throughout the project.
"We were struggling with an idea for our topic, and our teacher Mrs. Burgei, had mentioned how exhaust on school buses is very harmful for kids' health. So, we kind of dived into how and why and what's a way we can fix that using EV's," says Addicyn Davis, winner of Ohio STEM Design Challenge.
Many teams made it to local competitions, but only this group experienced what it was like going to state.
"It was kind of like a gallery walk, we got judged before we went to state so like, all the pressure was over, and then we just went there and presented to a lot of people," says Isabella Macke, winner of Ohio STEM Design Challenge.
"We presented to them, like different people for about an hour, and there was a bunch of questions we were getting asked at the end, so we had to answer them, and it wasn't really bad," says Ava Ansley, winner of Ohio STEM Design Challenge.
They couldn't have done this without their support and teacher Mrs. Burgei, and she mentions how the girls plan to continue this project.
"The girls are hoping to go forward with this project next year and in real time, live it out with the government and EPA mandates and the data they collected with the air quality stuff is awesome to keep in our back pocket to show, like hey, this system, although expensive to fix, is really good for kids' health," says Mary Burgei, STEM teacher at Ottawa Glandorf Elementary.
She adds that this project has grabbed the attention of some government officials, and they have considered backing off on some EPA mandates. By having the next generation learn about problems, and how to fix them, it is extremely beneficial to the community and couldn't happen without trial and error.
"I love it when kids are not afraid to fail and when they have chances at school to fail, that can help them 10-fold in the future. So, we really embrace everything of failure forward here, and when something doesn't work out in the process, you pivot, and you go to plan B, C, D," adds Burgei.
