Wheaton Engineering Students Work with Stephen Knolls Students on Designs

Seniors in Wheaton High School's Engineering Capstone course recently brought their yearlong projects to Stephen Knolls School, where students tested the devices and provided feedback before the projects are finalized.

The capstone course, part of the Project Lead The Way engineering program, challenges students to identify a problem, develop a solution and build a working prototype over the course of the school year.

Student teams partnered with Stephen Knolls School after staff members shared ideas for projects that could support students and school programs. Throughout the year, the aspiring engineers researched, designed and built solutions. Each student created an individual design before teams evaluated their ideas and selected one concept to develop into a prototype.

Among the projects tested at Stephen Knolls were a motorized exercise bike, a greenhouse watering device, a dunking stand and three interactive ball games.

"Ideally, the devices our students create make someone's life better," said engineering teacher Rich Scott. "Wheaton High School has a partnership with Stephen Knolls, and we try and build devices for their students.” 

The feedback session gave Wheaton students an opportunity to see how their devices performed in a real-world setting and identify improvements before completing the final products.

Students are now refining their projects based on the feedback they received and plan to deliver the finished devices to Stephen Knolls before the end of the school year.