MTSU Mondays: Science Olympiad winners, tech student gizmos, library liquor docs

Courtesy of MTSU
·3 min read

Here's the latest news from Middle Tennessee State University.

Northfield earns top spot at 2023 Elementary Science Olympiad

Seven first-place finishes in one-third of the event categories propelled Northfield Elementary School to the team championship in the 13th Elementary Science Olympiad, held at John Pittard Elementary School.

Northfield students made huge strides from their 11th-place finish in 2019, the last time the Elementary Science Olympiad was held because of precautions surrounding the coronavirus from 2020-22.

Students from Northfield Elementary School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., celebrate winning the 2023 Elementary Science Olympiad, recently held at John Pittard Elementary School. The team earned seven first-place awards in the tournament.
Students from Northfield Elementary School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., celebrate winning the 2023 Elementary Science Olympiad, recently held at John Pittard Elementary School. The team earned seven first-place awards in the tournament.

Elementary Science Olympiad provides youths with teams and individuals basic concepts in STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — and, hopefully, increase their interest in middle school and high school, to potentially pursue in college and in their careers.

The event was directed by chemistry professor Pat Patterson, who, coordinated faculty and 13 upper division physical science experiential learning students and volunteers to run the daylong event.

Finishing second was Discovery School, the 2019 overall winner, with Blackman, Overall Creek, Tulip Grove, and Bradley Academy elementary schools rounding out the top six.

Mech-Tech shows off seniors’ creative talents

Hovercrafts, a humanoid robot, smart lock boxes to store deliveries safely on your porch, a small pinball machine and a navigation aid for the visually impaired — these are just a sampling of dozens of creative, end-of-year Engineering Technology student projects on display.

Wearing a tracking vest, May graduate Luke Maness of Lexington, Tenn., guides the robot, “Candice Be Human,” during the annual Middle Tennessee State University Mech-Tech, an expo for Engineering Technology and Mechatronics Engineering students held during study day.
Wearing a tracking vest, May graduate Luke Maness of Lexington, Tenn., guides the robot, “Candice Be Human,” during the annual Middle Tennessee State University Mech-Tech, an expo for Engineering Technology and Mechatronics Engineering students held during study day.

Always a highlight event for seniors graduating in May, August, or December, Mech-Tech is the engineering and technology student project expo full of an assortment of gadgets and gizmos. The event is held on study day, just days before graduation, in the Miller Education Center’s second-floor atrium.

The revered Mechatronics Engineering program, featuring robots, is a featured discipline. To view video of the event, go to https://youtu.be/-dncHsV9c-Q.

“We love this event. All of the student projects were very good,” Ken Currie, Engineering Technology chair, said, adding “There was a lot of hard work (put into the projects) and great turnout of people to support the event.”

First, second, and third-place teams will receive swag for their efforts.

“Candice Be Human” (the humanoid robot) team members Garrett Albertson, Davis Patterson, Luke Maness, and Orrin Sagman placed first. TN-TUF Hovercraft members Awand Piro, John Allaman, Matthew Pettey, Phillip MacDonald, and Kevin Killets took second. Judges awarded Project 4-Sight members Tamir Hussain, Basel Mahmoud, Bilal Zakaria, and Jake Dams third place.

Walker Library preserving federal documents related to liquor industry

James E. Walker Library has been named as a Preservation Steward for the U.S. Government Publishing Office, an agreement through which the library will procure and preserve publications relating to agricultural, legal, and cultural aspects of brewing and distilling from the 1800s through 1980.

The topic falls in line with the university’s Fermentation Science Program and School of Agriculture and provides tangible items the university community can use for research and exploration.

MTSU James E. Walker Library Special Collections staff holding items in the Distilling, Fermenting and Brewing Collection are, from left, Alan Boehm, head of Special Collections; Susan Martin, chair of collection development and management; Susan Hanson, Special Collections cataloguing; Beverly Geckle, continuing resources librarian and Federal Depository Library coordinator; and Toni Butler Click, continuing resources coordinator and federal documents assistant.

“Our goal is to collect as comprehensively as we can,” explained Susan Martin, chair of collection development and management in Walker Library. “And because the liquor industry is highly regulated, there are lots of documents coming from the government.”

In addition to Martin, four other Walker Library staff were instrumental in getting the stewardship program off the ground: Alan Boehm, head of special collections; Beverly Geckle, continuing resources librarian and federal depository coordinator; Susan Hanson, special collections cataloging; and Toni Butler Click, continuing resources coordinator and federal documents assistant.

The group’s efforts add another component to the library’s 3-year-old Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection, which covers the history and production of the liquor industry from colonial times through the present day, with an emphasis on Tennessee.

MTSU Mondays content is provided by submissions from MTSU News and Media Relations.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU Mondays: Science Olympiad winners, tech gizmos, liquor docs