Although Archer is a 20-minute drive from the beach, community members were recently able to immerse themselves in marine life much closer. This past week, community members could walk down the second-story science hallway and into room 216A, where they were transported into a world of underwater engineering magic.
The Marine Magic exhibit, open April 20-27, was the culmination of months of work by the Engineering Arts class. The class’ six students — Saige Queensborough (‘29), Avital Eisenberg (‘29), Kate Rheinheimer (‘28), Eva Fischer (‘28), Violet Miller (‘27) and Cleo Wilson (‘26) — each engineered a model of an ocean animal, ranging from turtles to Anglerfish.
Science Teaching Apprentice L Retterer, who co-teaches the class alongside engineering teacher Mike Carter, said the exhibition was the students’ idea. Once the students decided the project they wanted to work on as a group, the class spent the first part of the year learning the necessary skills, Retterer said.
“This group wanted to do LEDs and illusions and movement, so we spent time learning about Arduinos and coding and C++. And then after we learned all those skills, they went back to their original drawing board and … they decided they wanted to make little under-the-sea creatures,” Retterer said. “They all built little animatronics. Some of them move when you get close to them, some of them light up when you get close to them and then some of them, like Eva’s turtle, specifically, has a shell that when you push it, it changes colors.”
Queensborough took Carter’s Pattern Design class last year as an eighth grader and said she joined Engineering Arts to learn more about engineering.
“I think that last year and throughout my whole life, I’ve been very interested in engineering and stuff like that. And so … I was just like, ‘What’s the next step after pattern design?’ since I loved it so much,” Queensborough said. “My project … was to create an animatronic sea creature, so I made an octopus.”
There have been some hiccups while the projects are in exhibition, but Queensborough said she knows they are problems she can fix.
“I visited it today and the motions weren’t working, but the function of it was supposed to detect from a motion sensor how far away you are and then it will light up different colors depending on where you’re at. And then it also spins 180 degrees at the same time,” Queensborough said. “It’s been pretty fun. I really enjoyed it. It was definitely strenuous and it was tiring, but, at the end, I was really happy that I got to finish my project because it was something that I was looking forward to.”
Retterer said they were happy to see how excited students were about the project because the students, not the teachers, decided its scope and focus.
“Students spent a lot of time learning these skills and working on it, and each of their individual personalities definitely shines through all of their creatures,” Retterer said. “Each of the creatures has a lot of personality.”
Wilson, who plans to go into architecture, said what she most enjoyed about the project was getting to try new techniques.
“Getting to use the laster cutter and some of the equipment in the IdeaLab was really exciting … it was super cool to use those resources for the first time,” Wilson said. “It’s definitely taught me a lot about problem solving and how to … turn a very specific project with very specific requirements into something that still excites you and allows you to express your creativity even within very specific restraints.”
Queensborough especially appreciated the project allowed her to practice a variety of new skills, from using the laser cutter for the first time to learning how to print stickers.
“I think it was a great project. It was a mixture of artsy and then also STEM, like coding and using different appliances. So I learned how to use the sticker-maker to create the sign that says Marine Magic,” Queensborough said. “I definitely encourage people to take the class, especially because I think you could really learn a lot — not only about yourself, but about how you can use STEM to create cool things.”
