Two Fontana High School teams who created adaptive and assistive living devices were recently named semifinalists in the International Technology and Engineering Educators’ REACH Challenge, and a third Fontana High School team received special recognition in the competition.
The REACH Challenge is a nationwide design thinking project that challenges students to create a viable technological solution to help members of their community thrive.
Fontana High School’s REACH Challenge students are all enrolled in the school’s bio-animatronic and neuroprosthetic career technical education pathway, a two-part program that teaches students advanced STEM skills and gives them hands-on experience in the biotechnology and prosthetics fields.
“In our pathway, we always tell our students that they have the power to make a change in the world,” Diann Bravo, bio-animatronic and neuroprosthetic teacher, said in a news release. “The most moving and impactful part of the REACH Challenge is that my students can take the skillsets they have learned in class and apply them to make someone else’s quality of life better.”
Team SpongeBob Alert System (S.A.S.), one of the two semifinalists from Fontana, created a device that would allow team member Gabriel Veloz’s parents to leave his brother unsupervised for a short time when needed.
The two-part device detects sounds from the user and issues an alert if it hears something odd, such as a choking sound. The device allows Veloz’s parents to step away from their son momentarily and complete other tasks without worry.
“It’s a huge accomplishment for my team and I to be able to assist caregivers and be named semifinalists with our device,” Veloz said in the news release. “My brother has cerebral palsy, so it meant a lot for me to create a device for my brother and be able to assist my parents in taking care of him.”
The other Fontana team to advance to the semifinals, Drift Stand, created a solution for an issue faced by one of their peers. The team’s classmate, who is paralyzed in one arm, often faces difficulty in completing schoolwork independently due to his inability to hold a paper down and write at the same time.
The Drift Stand team designed a clipboard-like device that uses a magnetic system to keep papers held down while the user writes, allowing the user to complete classwork and homework independently.
Team Attachable Table, the third Fontana High School REACH Challenge team, received special recognition for its device that allows an active man with a prosthetic leg to carry more things on his walker without the risk of them falling off. The team’s extended attachable table for the user’s walker can easily be added and removed.
This is the first year Fontana High School teams have participated in the REACH Challenge, according to the news release.
The school’s two semifinalist teams had the opportunity to demonstrate their devices during a STEM Showcase at the International Technology and Engineering Educators conference in March, and all three teams received banners and $100 Harbor Freight gift cards.
