Westfield Public Schools Celebrated for STEM Programming

The Westfield News

By Amy Porter

This spring, students and teachers throughout Westfield Public Schools were recognized on the community, state and national levels for their strong implementation of science, technology, engineering and math programming in the classroom.

The WPS Curriculum Department’s STEM team of Kate Perez and Christina Smith, math supervisor and science, technology and engineering supervisor for grades 5-12, respectively, and Lindsey Ayers, STEM coach for pre-K to grade 4, couldn’t have been more proud.

Beginning on April 10 with the first-ever Applied Learning Student Showcase hosted by Mestek, students from grades 2-12 representing all schools in the district presented 55 of their projects to local professionals and community members.

This event highlighted applied learning across multiple subjects, including STEM, science, computer science, civics, and history. Additionally, students from the Westfield High School free web clinic course provided local businesses with professional consultations and website improvement strategies.

The showcase was sponsored by the One8 Foundation, which helps Massachusetts schools get the most out of applied learning programs by providing implementation support, educator community programming and student opportunities that help bring learning to life.

Several of the projects featured in the community showcase also joined peers from across Massachusetts on May 8 at the One8 Applied Learning Student Showcase held at the Track at New Balance in Boston. The event brought together students in grades 3-12 to present Applied Learning work to more than 500 industry professionals who provided real-time feedback.

Perez, Smith and Ayers were thrilled to announce that they returned home from the Boston showcase with three Project of Distinction awards in Project Lead the Way, an applied STEM curriculum used in Westfield Public Schools. “With 460 projects presented from across the state and only 30 receiving awards, this is an incredible achievement and a testament to the hard work, creativity, and dedication of our students.”

The three projects honored included “My Robot” by fifth graders Alexa Fagnand and Charlotte Saltus in technology teacher Brandon Osborne’s class at Westfield Intermediate School.

Osborne said for this project, students had to design and build a robot that could help with disaster response. For this particular build, he said they had to develop a robot that could remove nuclear waste from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Powerplant that was destroyed by the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

Also honored were Westfield Intermediate School sixth grade students Mairin Shea and Lauren Paradis in technology teacher Nicholas Witherell’s class.

Witherell said their assignment was to build an app to try and solve a problem. Shea and Paradis took on the problem of what’s for dinner? Their project, “Dinner Spinner,” built an app with 12 different food options and a randomized timer to pick one of the options. Once a choice was picked, the app asked for dietary restrictions and then provided instructions to make the choice. There was also an option for AI to provide options based on the ingredients that you have.

Also recognized as a project of distinction was “Auto Golf,” by Westfield High School tenth graders Lucy Alger, Natalie Dansereau and Liona Kononchuk in science teacher Renee Sweeney’s PLTW principles of engineering class.

Inspired by a scenario where engineers wanted to achieve perfectly consistent and repeatable golf shots, the students were tasked with designing and prototyping an integrated ‘Auto Golf’ system. The goal was to build a robotic player capable of launching projectiles and smart targets that respond when a shot is successful, said Sweeney. She said the project integrated pneumatics or hydraulics, electrical engineering, and kinematics and software.

Sweeney said the award recognized the students’ disciplined use of the engineering design process, including developing a decision matrix to select the most effective designs, simulating electrical circuits in Autodesk Tinkercad before physical construction, and engaging in iterative prototyping, where they tested, evaluated, and refined their designs to improve accuracy and reliability.

Smith said a lot of the students were able to present their projects at both the Mestek and Boston showcases within a few weeks, giving them the chance to keep improving them based on the feedback they received.

She said Osborne at WIS shared with the team that the Mestek showcase increased his students’ confidence level when they went to Boston.

“The showcase demonstrates that students get a lot out of these projects when they take them, and when we go to the state, we get recognition for strong implementation and great outcome,” said Smith.

Most recently, Westfield Public Schools announced that nine schools in the district received national recognition as Project Lead the Way Distinguished Schools, an honor given to a select number of schools across the U.S. for their commitment to increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in career-connected learning through PLTW.

Recognized for a successful three-year launch of the applied science curriculum were Highland Elementary, Munger Hill Elementary, Paper Mill Elementary, Southampton Road Elementary, Westfield River Elementary and Westfield Intermediate School. Recognized for its gateway program was Westfield Middle School, and for its engineering program, Westfield High School.

“Receiving this national recognition across nine of our schools is a powerful reflection of our commitment to every student in Westfield. By providing high-quality STEM experiences from pre-K through graduation, we are ensuring that all students have the tools and the confidence to explore, innovate, and succeed in an ever-changing world,” said Ayers.