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Latexo Students Hold Christmas Engineering Workshop 

By Hailey Brent

Latexo ISD Student Reporter Special to The Messenger

This article was prepared and written by one the student journalists from Latexo High School in collaboration with The Messenger. We would like to thank the students who participate in this program and a special thanks to their English teacher Lisa Sullivan who worked so hard to make it possible.

LATEXO –  Latexo High School’s Scientific Research and Design (SRD) classes learned about simple machines this semester; in true Christmas fashion, December 12, these students put on their first “Engineering Santa’s Workshop” for elementary students grades Pre-K through 6th to enjoy and learn all about simple machines (while still making time for fun and play).

Latexo science teacher Mrs. Ashley Crabtree created an interactive North Pole in her classroom for students to enjoy.

Throughout the classroom were multiple stations for elementary students; Mrs. Crabtree’s SRD high school students were tasked with designing their stations and teaching elementary students about their simple machines.

At one station, the pulley was highlighted.  Using four different pulley systems, the SRD students created tasks for the students to complete in order to teach the students about the pulley and how it works, the students filled buckets with coal, reindeer food, and snowballs, and created an “elf elevator” and asked the students to lift each item using a pulley.

Other stations included a conveyor belt that loads Santa’s presents onto his sleigh to teach the students about a compound machine, and another group used screws to create the outline of a Christmas tree while the elementary students were given string to create the tree.

In Santa’s “bakery”, students learned about a wedge by making Christmas cookies out of homemade playdough and cookie cutters.

Students learned about inclined planes at a station where they raced cars, and learned about the wheel and axle by playing with cars and racing them in paint.

Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]

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