Hilarie Hall

“Rockets and Robots: Becoming Young Engineers” is Hall’s winning program idea. Its aim is to be an energetic and collaborative program for 150 student engineers in first through fourth grades. The students will have the opportunity to build, test, modify, and display numerous structures and simple machines. They will design structures that can soar, rotate, or withstand significant pressure and force. For example, the students will build pipe rollercoasters, create safe and sturdy “cars” for eggs, construct different types of scaled bridges, and design rocket launchers. The robotics and programming component is added once the students’ progress in their engineering ability. However, for the robotics component, students will utilize both Vex and Lego robotics kits, and collaborative teams will build and later program the robots to perform simple tasks. The young engineers will utilize school laptops and Apple iPads to blog about their successful strategies, and they will create videos highlighting their creativity. Hall resides in Gaithersburg.