A group of eighth graders at Winamac Middle School is designing a high-tech locker, to make it easier to stay organized and get to class. The Eastern Pulaski School Board got an update Monday from the school’s new Nanoline team. It will be competing against other middle and high school students to come up with ways to make life easier using automation.
The Winamac Nanoline Team’s idea is to make a locker that’s quicker to use by replacing the traditional lock with a fingerprint reader. They’re also looking to improve the inside of the locker. One idea is a system of slots and drawers that will sort through the students’ items and automatically give them the right books and materials for each class, based on that particular student’s schedule. The whole goal is to help students get to class faster.
Coach Emma Kiser said the Nanoline students will build a working prototype. “The kids will do all the coding, all the programming, all the wiring for this,” she explained. “So even though it sounds kind of wild and crazy, we’ve really been looking at it, and it’s doable. It’s all within their reach.” In fact, just like them, kids all all over the world can already start early in the world of coding thanks to the best apps to learn programming.
She said the team has a lengthy competition process to get ready for. “The first phase is due in November. We have to do – I think it’s like a video presentation that we submit to Phoenix Contact,” Kiser said. “And if we make it beyond there, then we go until February, and if we make it beyond there, fingers crossed, if we win the whole thing, we go to Disney World.”
Kiser explained that the Nanoline team grew out of the success of the TECHFIT program, which deals with similar concepts at the seventh-grade level.
