Students build wind-powered boats at Engineering Design Challenge
Posted: May 19, 2025
Second and third graders representing each elementary school in Newport News participated in the school division's Engineering Design Challenge on May 16 at Newsome Park Elementary School.
STEM Cup was the theme of the problem they were presented to solve for the competition. For the challenge, students do not know what the assignment is until it is given to them with the instructions and materials needed at the start of the time period allowed to complete it.
Competing in groups, students took on the role of maritime engineers assigned to design and build a wind-powered boat that zoomed across the water without anyone touching it. Schools competed to see who could build the fastest boat while following all the rules and earning the most points.
The challenge encouraged creative thinking, collaboration and perseverance.
Students applied their understanding of buoyancy, forces and material properties to design their boats. They collected data during testing, compared decimals and whole numbers to evaluate how well their designs performed. Based on their data, teams revised their prototypes, making improvements to create more effective solutions.
Dutrow Elementary School won first place, with Kiln Creek coming in second place and Palmer taking third place.
The Mariners' Museum and Park served as NNPS' community partner for the event. The Engineering Design Challenge is part of the school division's ongoing STEM education initiative emphasizing skills in science, technology, engineering and math.
This was the third and final NNPS Engineering Design Challenge for this school year.
Middle and high school students representing each secondary school participated in the challenge High & Dry on March 28. Fifth grade students representing each elementary school worked on the Maze Craze challenge on December 5.
