HCPSSHoward HS Teams Win Countywide Engineering Expo
June 6th, 2023
Two Howard High School (HoHS) teams took home top honors for developing innovative solutions to real-world problems at the annual Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering Design & Development Expo. A team from Marriotts Ridge High School placed third for developing a fire safety device.
Held at HoHS on May 6, the Expo brought together teams from high schools across Howard County to showcase projects developed during their participation in HCPSS’ Gifted and Talented PLTW Engineering Design and Development class, a year-long course in which seniors research, design and build solutions to authentic engineering problems.
Under the guidance of HoHS PTLW instructor Jay Morraye, the Howard High School teams began the school year by identifying and validating the problem they wished to solve.
“That part of the process was really time consuming,” says student Issac Sherwood, whose team placed second in this year’s Expo. “We came up with a lot of possible problems. And even once we narrowed down what we wanted to do, we had to do a lot of research to confirm that the problem we had in mind was something we should try to solve.”
The first place team—composed of Michael Jenkins, Benjamin Ward, and Kyle Jones—initially set out to develop a device that could be used to help elderly people who had fallen stand up. However, their research into that problem revealed that much work had already been done in that area.
“While we thought about trying to improve on other people’s ideas, what we really wanted was to come up with a unique problem and a unique solution,” Jones says.
After further brainstorming and research, the team decided to develop a device that would enable people suffering from arthritis, carpal tunnel, and other motor skill-related issues to more easily pump gasoline into their cars.
The team developed and tested a number of prototypes and 3D prints before landing on the model they brought to this year’s Expo: a battery-powered device that affixes to a gas pump and uses a lever to apply pressure to the handle, reducing the pressure required by the user to operate the pump.
“It took a ton of work, but we were happy with the results we presented at the Expo,” says Jenkins. He and his team are continuing to work to improve their design outside of school. They also have begun pursuing a provisional patent on their design.
The second-place team, including Sherwood and his fellow HoHS students Bryson Bartlett and Samantha Barnhart, set out to develop a device that would help to prevent children from tampering with electrical outlets.
Members of the team independently brainstormed possible solutions and then shared their ideas with the group.
“We basically pulled together the best bits and pieces from each person’s design and combined them to create our team’s design,” explains Bartlett.
The team then developed a series of prototypes, which they tested and refined to generate their final project: a plastic plate with two “doors” that can be placed over an outlet. The plate requires two points of pressure to make the outlet work,making it more difficult for children to tamper with the outlet.
While earning top spots at this year’s Expo was certainly a highlight for the two HoHS teams, it is far from the only thing they took away from the experience.
“I feel much more confident presenting my ideas to people,” notes Bartlett.
Jenkins feels similarly, noting that he now knows “how to make an impactful presentation.”
For Sherwood, being enrolled in PLTW Engineering Design and Development has boosted his organizational skills.
“You are given a lot of freedom in this class. No one is standing over you, telling you what to do or when to do it. You have the opportunity to take charge and learn to manage your time.”
At the same time, Sherwood says that his experience in PLTW has given him a strong command of the engineering design process—something that he and all of the students on HoHS’ winning teams will use as they head to college to pursue engineering next year.