Sixth graders complete balance project

At Olney Junior High School, Kristi McQueen’s sixth grade STEM class recently took part in a balance project.

According to Mc-Queen, what served as a starting point for the project was the difference between the stated weight on a bag of M&M’s or Skittles and the actual weight.

The students were assigned to create a device that weighs the bags and alerts the user(s) when the weight is different from the printed weight. Students worked in teams to brainstorm, plan, and create a design that falls within the constraints of the project.

“This class is focusing on asking questions first, imagining and brainstorming different methods, and then writing out a detailed plan of how they are going to create it,” McQueen said.

“Most of the time students love to jump to the creating process when making a design without much thought of how they are going to build it,” she said.

McQueen added, “The students have used recycled materials and have come up with different variations of scales that they then got to test out with bags of skittles to see if their design works.”