Upper St. Clair STEAM community projects help nonprofit group
Abby Happ talks about her team’s carbon calculator project.
Presenting their scale model of the acid mine drainage system at Wingfield Pines are, from left, Max Trunwald, Victor Dubbs and Johanna Chikuna.
As a nonprofit organization, Allegheny Land Trust relies to a great extent on volunteers to fulfill its mission of conservation and environmental stewardship.
So when the group received notification from Upper St. Clair High School about students seeking partners for community outreach ventures, land trust staff members were ready with some ideas.
“We were lucky enough that two of the teams were interested in our projects,” said Caitlin Seiler, the volunteer and land resources director.
Students in the school’s STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics – Design Lab, instructed by technology education teacher Fred Peskorski, worked on outreach projects during the fall and reported on their progress during a recent Community Project Presentation Day.
For the benefit of Allegheny Land Trust, the team of Johanna Chikuna, Victor Dubbs and Max Trunwald constructed a scale model of the acid mine drainage system at the organization’s Wingfield Pines property in Upper St. Clair. Also at the land trust’s request, Abby Happ, Jordan Lieberman, Nino Del Rossa and Nick Ondrejko developed a user-friendly carbon emissions calculator.
Two other teams also gave presentations: Brian McGrady, CJ Stott, Neale Misquitta and Mac Dominic, who created a plan for a new playground at Upper St. Clair’s Baker Elementary School; and Ethan Bowman, Pat O’Neil and Sam Erlanger, who came up with improvements for a concession stand at the high school stadium.
The scale model presented a particular challenge for Chikuna, Dubbs and Trunwald
“None of them has had experience running a CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machine or developing three-dimensional models,” Peskorski said. “So they had two problems here within the same one.”
At issue was putting together a small, portable representation of Wingfield Pines’ passive drainage system for Allegheny Land Trust’s educational purposes. The system removes iron from water before returning a cleaner version to Chartiers Creek.
For the model, the students used Google Earth satellite imagery to help determine dimensions of the conservation area, and Autodesk Inventor mechanical design software to come up with plans.
“In order to make our model as accurate as possible, we scaled down the dimensions we took off Google Earth, and 33 feet of terrain in actual Wingfield Pines was converted to one inch on our model,” Chikuna explained.
The final product is 34.81 inches wide, 18.81 inches long, 2.5 inches deep and weighs 25 pounds, with handles attached for portability.
“The model is constructed of medium-density fiber, which is a fairly strong material,” Dubbs said. “So that’s what gives it all that weight, but with that weight comes a lot of durability.”
The other Allegheny Land Trust-inspired community project involves educating people about how much carbon they put into the atmosphere. By entering numbers pertaining to three categories selected by the students – transportation, home and food – users can learn more about their environmental impact, with the hope that they adjust accordingly.
Also, the calculations include a suggested monthly donation and number of volunteer hours for the land trust, based on the figure for total carbon emissions and the number of trees that need to be planted to compensate.
The organization plans to put the scale model and carbon calculator to use, Seiler said, also explaining: “Both of the projects require us to do some follow-up.”
The scale model, for example, was built with the intention of pouring water on it to aid in the visuals for demonstration purposes, but it has yet to be waterproofed. And in its current form, the carbon calculator is not fully interactive, requiring an additional step to make it function properly.
But the students’ efforts in all regards made a significantly positive impression, according to Seiler.
“We are very happy with what they were able to accomplish,” Seiler said.