Students learn about STEM through a festive schoolwide activity.
Before students at Pohatcong Township Elementary School could start winter break on Friday, they had one last assembly.
The final rounds of the inaugural Santa's Sleigh Ride Challenge was held in the school's gym. The schoolwide event is designed to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education among students.
The competition was started by second- and third-grade math teacher Dave Gary who said he got the idea from his wife, a fellow teacher.
"I was doing it with two of my math classes and I told the other second- and third-grade math teachers about it and they seemed interested so we opened it up to the whole school," he said.
To keep it fair, as the school consists of grades kindergarten to eighth, the students were all limited to the same materials and allowed to design their sled using only two popsicle sticks, an index card, a portion of an egg carton and glue sticks.
"I thought we were going to be seeing the same four sleds but [the kids] really blew all of us away with their designs. It really says a lot about their creativity," Gary said of the finished sleighs.
The students learned about restraint, drag and friction in the process of building their sleds. Gary's third-grade classes also measured their earlier rounds themselves and then graphed the data.
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The activity got the kids thinking. Winners Liam Slack and James Benz explained that they did not use the egg carton in their design because it added too much air resistance.
For the competition itself Gary built a ramp out of wax paper-covered cardboard, wood supports and white paper to turn it into "Mount Pohatcong." Every class then had a practice round and a competitive round, and the sleds that traveled the farthest from the bottom of the ramp won.
The two sleds from each grade with the greatest distances were chosen to compete at Friday's assembly. In all, 17 sleds moved on to the final rounds. Some were individual achievements and others a team effort like that of the winners.
The final round consisted of the top four sleighs in the school. Their creators were fourth-grader Xander Smith, sixth-graders James Benz and Liam Slack, second-grader Ani Berger and sixth-graders Ryan Banghart and Gracie Merrick.
Tying for third with a distance of 3 feet 10 inches were Ani Berger and the team of Ryan Banghart and Gracie Merrick. Coming in second was Xander Smith at 4 feet 7 inches.
In first, with the school record was James Benz and Liam Slack with a total of 5 feet 4 inches. Their prize consisted of a glittering silver and gold sleigh ornament and bragging rights.
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When asked what they would do with their prize, Benz said they would take a picture of it, then pull names out of a hat to see which one of them gets it.
Both boys were surprised they made it this far after an initial bad run but admitted they did much better in the finals than the qualifying rounds.
When asked how he thought the students liked the activity and competition Gary said: "I think they were thrilled. Everyone was into making the sleighs and I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd" who was cheering excitedly for their classmates throughout.
"I think it went very well so I would love to make it a Pohatcong tradition," he said.