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Before competition, Chaney team gets expert’s tips
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
A team of Chaney students got some expert help in preparing their presentation for the Believe in Ohio competition.
The team of Victor Tenorio, Rayonna Booth and Zach Wright, all juniors, is the only Chaney team selected from the regional entries to move on to state.
Their pitch is a 3-D-printed prosthetic leg that can be customized for individual amputees. To help them prepare for this weekend’s competition, Pam Lubich, Chaney’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics coordinator, called in help from someone who hears 3-D project pitches for a living.
Rich Wetzel, additive manufacturing business coordinator at the Youngstown Business Incubator, suggested word changes, presentation tweaks and more research.
“Overall, I think it’s really great,” Wetzel told the students.
He urged the team to include a photo of Victor that appeared in The Vindicator last summer. Victor attended Biz 3D, hosted by the Youngstown Business Incubator and Youngstown State University at America Makes, for area high-school students.
It will impress the judges, he said.
“It’s the largest 3-D printing lab in the country,” Wetzel said, referring to America Makes.
Lubich agreed.
“Nobody else has America Makes and YBI,” she said.
The competition will take place Saturday at Westerville North High School near Columbus.
“They go in and with a Power Point and go in before the judges,” Lubich said. “They can only use six slides, and it’s only five minutes.”
A team of Chaney STEM seniors earned a Silver Medal at last week’s Skills USA competition in Columbus for their creation.
Cierra Warman, Kristine McGhee and Tate Acierno devised a stethoscope warmer to eliminate the chill of cold metal on bare skin.
“It’s something that people don’t really think about, but when you mention it, they say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a good idea,’” Tate said.
They tried three designs before deciding on a lamb puppet with a hand warmer heat pack inside as the best one.
Their first try used Velcro to keep the warmer on the stethoscope, but that proved inefficient, Cierra said.
Next, they tried a zipper on the puppet, but that didn’t work, either.
They settled on elastic instead, she said.
The warmer lasts for 10 hours.
“That’s how long nurses’ and doctors’ shifts are,” Tate explained.
Kristine said she was apprehensive, walking into the Columbus Convention Center and seeing all of the people. She’s uncomfortable with public speaking.
The experience, though, will make speaking in front of large groups easier for Kristine the next time she has to do it.