STEM projects revealed for 2023 spring semester

Sophie Webb, Social Chair, Social Media Manager

The STEM Seminar class at Fossil Ridge High School taught by Daniel Dannahower has a new set of projects for students to take on for the rest of this semester. 

STEM Seminar is a class that is offered with a prerequisite of STEM Survey, following students’ passion in science, technology, engineering, and math field. In STEM Seminar, students follow through with a project planned out in the previous Survey class. Projects span from building apps to making boxes to safely stay on a porch, now within the first week of the semester, the new projects have been announced.

The projects for the 2023 season are Aquaponics, Avalanche Airbag, Learning Gardens, Protecting Tennis Launcher, Stair-Climbing Wheelchair, and STEM in Elementary Schools. 

“[Avalanche Airbag is] a pretty technical project, and there’s a lot of different ways that could be approached. I also see it has a like a very direct impact on what happens in Colorado,” says Mr. Dannahower, explaining his favorite project. 

Kevin Rodgers, project manager for Avalanche Airbag is esteemed to be leading a more difficult project. 

“I’m looking forward to seeing where this will go. I’m confident in my team and their abilities which makes me eager to find out all that we’re able to accomplish,” Rodgers says.

The projects in STEM include multiple skill sets, ranging in difficulty but each needing time dedicated to the craft.

“We get some projects that are like very technical and on the higher end of the difficulty level, and

In the media center, on January 10th, project managers interview to find potential candidates for their projects.

then some that are still very good projects, but they’re not super technical,” Dannahower discusses.

To plan the groups, each student must complete a form ranking each project. Then, each student goes through two interviews with the selected project manager. Mr. Dannahower then tries to fit each student’s preferences, forming permanent groups. 

Each group has the rest of the semester to make a firm timeline, complete the project, and make a presentation, discussing the progress they made. 

“I’m really looking forward to going through the process of designing and building this,” Rodgers says. The projects are set to be completed by May.