By NVC’s Dr. Thomas Pressly
Bringing the spin to mathematics! Twelve whizz students, backed by NVC’s PLUS+STEM Department of Education Grant, created a stunning prize wheel as part of a service-learning project.
The NVC Math Department and support labs (JH-308 Math Advocacy and JH-316 Math Tutoring) plans to use the wheel at college events to engage students.
The students were supervised by Mark Jurena and Dr. Thomas Pressly. The support labs and department requested the design to have a student designed and constructed prize wheel to enhance student engagement at college events.
The students developed and constructed a shaft and bearing block system to support the main wheel. The decorative gears on the front were 3D printed in the NVC Makerspace. LEDs around the perimeter are controlled using a Arduino with a accelerometer sensor (to detect vibrations when the wheel is spun). The front surface is a whiteboard to allow the users to update the prizes. The ticker was designed and 3D printed in the PCA Scene Creation Shop/Summer Makerspace location.
The engineering design process started in the fall of 2023 with a Voice of the Customer meeting with Qiaoying Zhou (department chair), Gabe Vidaurri (Math Tutoring), and Jesse Harbert (Math Advocacy).
From there, the students developed the Critical Customer Requirements for the project. The student teams kept the math department updated with semesterly meetings and end of the semester presentations. The delivery of the final completed project to the math department was July 23, 2024.
Here is the list of students Plus+STEM service-learning volunteers who created the prize wheel.
Student Intern Teams:
Fall 2023:
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Joel Gamboa
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Isabella Garmon
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Charles Lazcano
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Jennifer Perez
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Anabelle Rocha
Spring 2024:
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Agustin Cervantes
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Isaiah Edgerton
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Ivan Estrada
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Ava Hernandez
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Wilhelm Watson
Summer 2024:
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Kevin Frias
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Fabian Hernandez
The help and assistance from the NVC Fine & Performing Arts and Kinesiology or FPAK department is gratefully acknowledged. Ty Mylnar fabricated the initial two-foot diameter circles with the CNC machine in PCA.
In addition, Richard Crabb, Daniel Mitchell, Ty Mylar, James Sosso, Marco Konradi, Steven Montemayor, Jill Sprowls, and Felix Salinas facilitated the temporary relocation of the Makerspace from MLH to the PCA 128 Scene Creation Shop / Stagecraft area for Summer 2024. This made the successful conclusion of the project possible.
Support by Russ Frohardt, Qiaoying Zhou, Rachael Bower and Robert Carillo was deeply appreciated. This project also could not have been completed with support from the Plus+STEM Team (Prakash Nair – PI; Claudia Chagoya Verdin – CoPI; Thomas Pressly – CoPI; Roxanne Penaloza – Grant Manager; and Jeannie Quiroz – Grant Admin).
Our appreciation is also to Judy Camargo, NVC Grants, whose help has been invaluable with the Plus+STEM grant.
