Western Oklahoma students put their imaginations to work designing their own “carnival of the future” as part of an engineering design challenge called Design+Do, sponsored by Devon Energy in partnership with Engage Learning.

Participating schools included Hinton Elementary, Kingfisher Upper Elementary, Calumet Elementary, Geary Elementary, Okarche Elementary and Lt. General Thomas P. Stafford Elementary (Weatherford).

The team from Okarche won first place in the contest.

KUE’s team also brought home an award.

Teams arrived at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), with their thoroughly crafted blueprints where Devon volunteers and Engage Learning coaches helped students transform their concepts into reality using laser cutters and 3D printers.

A last-minute twist challenged teams to add a flag capable of being raised.

However, much of the work was done by students before the competition.

“This group of fifth grade students met for eight weeks to complete a design challenge of making a futuristic carnival,” explained Kaylene Ullom, the team’s coach.

Team members were Wagoner Endres, Paxton Neuenschwander, Bailee Ahlden, William McIlvain, Millisen Streetman, Lauren Schwarz and Harper Geheb.

“Our approach was to make a carnival that relied on energy sources of the future and focused on our community of Okarche,” Ullom continued. “We created a barn inspired ride called ‘The Twister’ which was operated by a wheel and axle and a motor and powered by a wind turbine.”

The students also included four other simple machines in their design.

“The kids did so much problem solving and had to really overcome the difficulty of many moving parts being able to function,” Ullom said.

“I am really proud of how they represented our community and our school. They showed up at 7:30 before school for eight weeks to create this masterpiece. I truly was just a supervisor and encourager. All the great thinking and ideas came from our students.”

Kingfisher students received “Best Engineering” for their project, which they worked on for nearly two months during enrichment class.

The sixth graders who competed were Blake Snow, Roxana Padilla, Ashlei Garcia, Raelynn Counts, Jude Rowan, Areli Arreguin and Brecken Stephens.

They were coached and taught by Melody Kuehn.

Engage Learning is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging creative thinking through science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

Bart Keeton, founder and director of Engage Learning, said he was impressed with teams’ eagerness to learn more and build something great.

“It is always exciting to see the new and creative design concepts students come up with,” Keeton said. “The goal of the Design+Do competition is to foster creativity, encourage pushing boundaries and demonstrate that groundbreaking inventions can emerge from anyone.”

Jimmy Turnini, manager of production engineering at Devon, said the company supports programs that emphasize using STEM principles in problem-solving.

“Devon contributes to events like Design+Do because we believe in the importance of introducing STEM concepts in a fun and engaging way,” Turnini said. “This competition not only underscores the value of STEM education but also illustrates how students can apply their classroom knowledge to real-world scenarios in daily life.”