With a single piece of paper and a runway, three Lamar University engineering students – Matthew Anderson, Kenneth Edwards and Mauricio Franco – have designed the newest STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) exhibit at the Beaumont Children’s Museum.
In early spring, the Beaumont Children’s Museum received the new Paper Airplane Launcher through a grant. The white high-density polyethylene machine is designed to send paper airplanes whirling through the air, allowing museum goers of all ages to observe aerodynamic flight principles such as thrust, lift and drag.
According to Dr. Brian Craig, dean of the College of Engineering, the Beaumont Children’s Museum searched for a way to have guests play with their newly grant-funded Paper Airplane Launcher safely without hitting others.
“I thought it was important to not only to provide a neat exhibit to help the Beaumont Children’s Museum possibly inspire future generations of engineers, but to also increase the College of Engineering’s involvement in support of our community,” Craig said, leaping into action to garner support of student volunteers.
Anderson, a senior mechanical engineering major, was the first to express his interest – enlisting Edwards and Franco to begin working on the project in early March. After four months of planning, ordering parts, welding and building, the team finally finished the 21-feet-long, 8-feet-tall structure.
“The Beaumont Children’s Museum is thankful to the talented Lamar University engineering students, Matthew Anderson, Kenneth Edwards and Mauricio Franco, for their professional work that was applied to creating and building the new Paper Airplane Launch Runway,” said Amanda Yarbrough, executive director of the Beaumont Children’s Museum. “The launch concept focuses on engineering, art and math though creative thinking, design, physics, geometry, troubleshooting, persistence and more. A paper airplane is so much more than meets the eye.”