Churchill Road GEMS students Sarah Rice, Maya Kalidindi, Megan Vandre, Grace Ollivant, Sofie Stitt, Megan Markwart, Becca Schuette, Caroline Buttz, Sydney Marenburg, Alyssa Kalish, Maddie Rubin, Meg Guberman, Emily Wang and Amanda Riddle show off the geodesic dome they made as part of their math and engineering club project. Corinne Reilly
After more than a month of hard work, fifth and sixth grade girls in the Churchill Road GEMS (Girls Excelling in Mathematics and Science) club completed the building of a geodesic dome. Using a soccer ball as a “model,” since the shapes on the ball mimic those of a true dome, students made the necessary mathematical calculations to build the dome out of hexagons, pentagons and trapezoids. Although the dome didn’t hold up by itself as everyone hoped, the girls reflected on the strength of their building materials, accuracy of measurements, and adjustment of dome size as ways they could modify their design in the future to help it hold up. Club sponsors Corinne Reilly (Advanced Academic Resource Teacher) and Ronnie Raju (CRS parent), hope that the girls will remember the reflection and modification component of the project since that will be the key to success for these future engineers.