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Glenbrook Middle School
With support from Chevron, Techbridge has expanded to Contra Costa County and is excited to host a program at Glenbrook Middle School . With the help of teachers Mike Marshall and Julia Civitello, the class successfully kicked off the school year with an egg bungee experiment and some creatively designed catapults.
Program Coordinator, Laura Enman, helps develop new projects and is very impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity she has seen at Glenbrook. The girls jumped right into the challenge of designing a bungee apparatus for an egg. They used nylon pantyhose, rubber bands, balloons and string to create a bungee suitable for an egg dropping from 6 feet. The final test culminated in “Oohs!” “Ahhs!” and “Splats!” as the girls dropped their eggs. A slow motion video of the egg bungees was played the following week and the girls got to see exactly how close to the ground their eggs dropped.
The girls also had the chance to test their creativity in a catapult design challenge. Given only popsicle sticks, a Dixie cup, rubber bands, a spool and hot glue, the girls had to design a catapult that could launch a bouncy ball. Much like real engineers, the girls first brainstormed what their catapults would look like, constructed and tested their designs, and then redesigned their catapults to get them to work better. At the end of the challenge the girls were given marshmallows to launch which resulted in a very delicious display of engineering! Design challenges like these introduce girls to engineering and give them an opportunity to learn about careers in the field.
