Fort Couch students advance in PA Media and Design Competition
Two Fort Couch Middle School students placed first in their respective categories in the regional PA Media and Design Competition.
Seventh-grader Felix Chen won the 3-D Design category, and eighth-grader Priyaharshini Sivakumar finished first in Animation. Both students are headed to the state competition to be held May 24 at Dickenson College in Carlisle.
The students are led by Jason O’Roark, gifted and accelerated math teacher. He explained that for the 3-D Design category, Felix focused on using automation to improve worker safety.
“Felix researched dangerous jobs for one that he thought he could automate and decided to save lives by no longer forcing roofers to climb up on roofs,” O’Roark said. “He made a plan for his automated roofer, worked hard to create all of the elements of his design in CAD, printed his design on a 3-D printer, and wrote about his plan and process.”
Using animation, Sivakumar developed a creative story about Pip the penguin who lives in the 1920s and wants to see the future because they think it will be wonderful.
“Through magical dreams the penguin travels to present day only to be disappointed that it is worse in so many ways,” O’Roark said. “Priyaharshini wrote a script, created her illustrations, used Scratch programming to bring them to life, and wrote about the process she used to create her project.”
The PA Media and Design Competition is an annual event that highlights Pennsylvania students’ application skills, creativity and knowledge. Middle and high school students have the opportunity to compete within six categories, including 3-D Design, Animation, Digital Movie, Logo and Graphic Design, Programming, and Web Page Design.