From Maplewood Township and The South Orange-Maplewood School District:
They’re a year older, a lot wiser (nine of them are now freshman at Columbia High School), and headed to Atlantic City on October 22 to represent Maplewood as one of three state finalists (out of 550 entries) at the New Jersey School Board Association’s Steam Tank™️ Challenge – an annual state-wide contest that calls on students to invent, modify, or use problem-solving skills to solve real-world problems.
For Maplewood’s local finalists, this meant tackling school pedestrian safety by inventing CrossGuard – a mechanized gate they designed, prototyped and built themselves that is now part of the public infrastructure at Maple Avenue and Salter Place; as well as implementing a one-way traffic solution with local officials and police during a critically active pedestrian window before school each morning.
The MMS Creative Crew was one of three state finalists in the New Jersey School Board Association’s Steam Tank™️ Challenge.
Sound like a herculean effort for kids? MMS Creative Computing & Design teacher Mary Alice Zavocki, who leads and mentors the school’s “Creative Crew,” never had a doubt about the 15 bright kids who comprise the group: Nic Mansfield, Teddy Cummings, Leila Harrison, Frank Umlauf, Sam Gamage, Brice Gunther, Sam Cook, Sylvia Kantor, Mila Rodgers, Lena Squilla, Maddie Sturgis-Abbott, Finn Murtagh, Roark Charkow, Clara Hoffmann, and Zareen Alban.
“Witnessing the collaboration within the Creative Crew has been a special experience,” said Ms. Zavocki. “We have one group of students who specialize in the engineering aspect of the project, another part of the team focuses on research and gathering data, and other mini-groups concentrate on creative design elements, email communications, and photography. Together, they make an amazing team as demonstrated by all they’ve accomplished so far!”
A lot of work led up to the exciting moment they found out they’d be one of three groups headed to the state finals in Atlantic City.
A year ago, they set out to tackle an innovative solution to the morning drop-off procedure at the MMS seventh-grade entrance, where two-way traffic, a bus zone, and on-street parking converged to make arrival time a dangerous window for students. Over the course of the last year, the kids met with Maplewood Police Department, members of the school board, Township engineers, TC Member Vic DeLuca, Maplewood Mayor Nancy Adams and South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum.
They captured drone footage of the area, tracked traffic patterns, built prototypes of their mechanical crossing guard, and conducted student and neighborhood surveys. They researched materials for the crossing guard, shaped and reshaped their idea, and learned how to draw on each other’s unique talents to create something so innovative that one of the Steam Tank judges told them they better get ready to patent it.
“MMS has a competitive spirit and a commitment to student voice and Ms. Zavocki truly exemplifies this,” said MMS Principal Dara Gronau. “I knew when they entered this competition that getting to the finals was the goal. They have done something really special to solve a problem they and their peers care about. Whether they win or not, they have left MMS better than they found it. I am so very proud of this team and of Ms. Zavocki’s leadership.”
