London City School student designers and entrepreneurs of all ages were on hand for London’s annual STEM Design Challenge District Showcase. Each year the Ohio STEM Learning Network hosts a design challenge where students collaborate to create workable solutions to key issues facing the state. The challenge culminates in a local showcase, which is evaluated by local civic and business leaders. This is the second year that London has hosted its own program.
This year’s challenge asked students to reimagine energy production and/or consumption to improve their community. London Police Chief Glenn Nichol, Mayor Pat Closser, Council President Henry Comer, and Utility Director Carol Benedict were on hand to score and provide feedback to participants. Also judging projects was Jessie Hughes, Schools and Programs and Evaluations Manager for Roto, which is a Dublin, Ohio-based design firm.
Each school approaches the challenge a little differently. At London Elementary, Mr. Jude who helps to facilitate gifted and STEM courses for all students mentored a team. At London Middle School, ELA teacher Elizabeth Landingham, who leads students during her genius hour STEM course, helped multiple groups participate, while at London High School, Computer Science Teacher Dan Karl mentored a team of participating students.
The district submits the highest performing presentations to the Ohio STEM Learning Network for further evaluation. The top solutions submitted to OSLN will be featured in a showcase that will be held virtually this May. This year’s London submissions include:
LHS: Alexis Zabloudil, Ashton Wolford, Amber Wolford, Raven large, Scott Tanner.
LMS: Hailey Ballah and Hannah Howard
LMS: Vada Belmont, Katelyn Duvall, Logan Hall, Emma Nation
LMS: Alex Cooper and Justin Jackman
LES: Eva Dwyer, Natalie Winebrenner, Kaitlyn Cooper, Vince Zabloudil
Over the last several years, London has quickly expanded a wide array of STEM activities for students. These include but are not limited to multiple curricular STEM course pathways at LHS including a path toward earning Ohio’s STEM Honors diploma and exploratory STEM courses at LES and LMS. The district also sponsors a robotics team at LMS, an eSports team at LHS, and participates in annual activities like the Hour of Code and the OSLN STEM design challenge. You can learn more about London’s STEM efforts here.