CentralElementary School

ASD Students Compete at CLIU K’NEX STEM Design Challenge

ASD Students Compete at CLIU K’NEX STEM Design Challenge
Posted on 05/14/2019
For the second year in a row, the Allentown School District has earned top honors at the K’NEX Challenge at the CLIU21! This year’s competition took place on Tuesday, May 7th and it was exciting for all of our amazing participating students and staff.   

Across the Lehigh Valley, 22 schools competed at the elementary (grade 4-5) level, representing 9 school districts from the CLIU21 area. The Allentown School District had 5 total teams participating from 3 elementary schools; Central (1 team), Mosser (2), and Ramos (2).

The K’NEX STEM Design Challenge is a competition for students in grades 4-8, at which they build a project to solve a problem using K’NEX pieces.  Students work in teams of 3-4 to design and build their projects. The top team in each division (grades 4-5 and 6-8) becomes eligible to compete at the state competition.

Below is a description of the challenge issued to students for the 2019 competition: 
Teams across Pennsylvania are being tasked with creating a machine that will move 3 objects at least 6 inches across a table. The “crane” must pick up the object, move it at least 6 inches and set it back down. Your team can choose the objects that need to be moved. Please consider how environmentally friendly your machine is while presenting about your project. Be creative!


Students planned their creations in the classroom and came to the event with all the necessary K’NEX pieces disassembled. They had two hours to recreate their project and then to present it to judges in a 2-minute narrative presentation. Judges also questioned the students about the details of their projects.  Projects were judged in the areas of creativity, teamwork, challenge success, design and presentation.  Three awards were given:

 - 3rd place – St. Ann’s School, Emmaus
 - 2nd place - Willow Lane School, East Penn School District
 - 1st place - Ramos Elementary School, Allentown School District –“The Animal Uber”

Congratulations to our friends from Ramos who will compete in the State Level competition, which will be held at Harrisburg University in Harrisburg, PA on Friday, May 17th.

Our ASD K’NEX STEM Challenge creations will be able to be seen once again at the ASD Showcase of Academic Excellence to be held on Wednesday, May 29th from 5-7:00 PM at the PPL Center. 

Special thanks to all the teachers who supported our students at the K’NEX Challenge: Natalie Delp (Central), Jennifer Voorhees (Mosser), and Keri Mittura (Ramos).  Check out great photos from the day below!