Students engage in engineering challenges created and facilitated by RAFT staff that take advantage of household materials and/or use RAFT supplied materials. Challenges can be live or asynchronous. RAFT will showcase student design solutions on our social media platforms. This is a great way to engage your learning community in fun hands-on activities without burdening teaching staff.

Over the past few weeks, students took part in the 'Cat Care' Engineering Design Challenge. Here are their projects:

This cat toy and feeder was made by Arjay Vijay, a 1st-grade student in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.

This cat toy named “Cat-Mobil” was made by Oishiya Roy, a 3rd-grade student in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. "I can pull the cart and the cat can chase it. There are small rattles inside the box which makes a sound when I pull it. There is a mirror in front, where the cat can see itself and feel entertained and funny." - Oishiya Roy

Gnanadeep Jasty, a 3rd-grade student in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, made a catapult using materials from around the house. Gnanadeep measured the average distance of his launches and got 8’5” at the height of 2’6”!

Samhith Pola, a 3rd grader from Country Club Elementary School designed his Cat Care project where his cat 'Blue' can jump from one platform to the other to get some food!

Pratik Patel, a 2nd grader from the San Ramon Valley School District built his 'Dream Cat House' that includes a cat home with a chimney, a ladder for his cat to sunbathe, a milk machine, and more.

Check out Pratik's Engineering Notes!

Zimo Li Mendes, a 4th grader in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District created a Cat Care project for his cat 'Sushi'. The project consists of a box attached to the crane-like structure with a ball at the end that Sushi can play with.

Stay tuned for more projects!

If you are interested in learning more or want to speak with one of our Education Team members, please contact Eric Welker at ewelker@raft.net.