Senior Engineering Capstone
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The first year of Forreston High School’s Senior Engineering Capstone course was completed on Thursday, May 4th. A team of three seniors presented on a year-long project they worked on through the Project Lead the Way curriculum. Team members included Johnathen Kobler, Alexander Milnes, and Brock Smith. The project started last fall with the students generating a list of situations that frustrated them. Once the list was determined, the students worked from that list towards defining a problem with the guidance of their instructor Mr. Jonathan Stauffer. The student team then conducted research on several of these problems to see which would become a feasible project. Their final project choice led to an improved football cleat cleaner for better performance and reducing the risk of injury.
The team received help on the project from 5 expert members of the community. Community members listened to the initial presentation and provided recommendations that focused their project design towards a working prototype. The experts were Dean Fox (E.D. Etnyre & Co.), Shaun Gallagher (Gallagher Engineering), Guy Gronewold (independent business owner), Scott Schoonhoven (Mid-America Plastic), and Seth Gronewold (Fehr-Graham). At the May 4th event, Dr. Naeva Batina filled in for her father, Guy, as a judge along with the 4 other experts mentioned above. The Forrestville Valley School District appreciates the time each community expert gave to support the students over the year.
Starting in the spring semester, the students built and tested their prototype through 9 different trials with three different types of cleated shoes. All three seniors said they learned a lot about the design process from the experience of trial and error. Each student plans to attend a college of engineering this fall. We are proud of the accomplishments these students made through the first engineering capstone class.
You may contact Mr. Jonathan Stauffer (jstauffer@fvdistrict221.org) for further information about the engineering program at Forreston Junior- Senior High School.