Quabbin students present state engineering challenge; district plans a Principles of AI course

Quabbin Regional School District students described a hands-on Project Lead The Way challenge in which teams designed a multi-layer shipping system to protect a high-cost biologic that must stay cold and intact during transport. Drew Giese, STEM instructional coach, introduced the students and said roughly 20 high-school students participated in the statewide event, which paired pupils with industry mentors and required teams to produce three concepts and present a final proposal.

The students said their final design used nested containers and lightweight aerogel-style insulation instead of gel packs, with one student noting the team prioritized nonplastic, recyclable materials and a three-step packing process to ensure the syringe at the center could not break. "It was kind of cool…we ended up using these, like, sheets…so whatever you put the syringe in, the container at that temperature was gonna stay," said Kaleena Dyer, a student presenter. Another student, Alyssa Ebert, said the event taught her to weigh trade-offs such as cost and safety: "it also gave us the opportunity to think about the factors that come into play…money and stuff like that that you don't usually think about in the classroom." Brody Faucher said the experience helped him decide to pursue mechanical engineering.

Giese said the event exposed students to authentic engineering constraints: teams read technical specifications, researched insulation materials, used decision matrices to rank ideas, and refined designs with mentor feedback. He also listed participating partners and mentors, including Mass Learning Project and a pharmaceutical firm that supplied product dimensions and performance constraints.

Looking ahead, the district plans to expand hands-on and workforce-focused offerings. Superintendent Colleen said the district will introduce a semester Principles of AI course in the computer-science pathway for 2026–27 to teach prompt engineering, modeling, and ethical uses of AI in STEM careers. "We're taking students from using AI as a fun little game to really thinking about prompts and prompt engineering and the ethics behind AI usage," Colleen said.

The presentation concluded with committee praise for the program's rigor and collaboration: one board member said the event gave students a "springboard" into engineering programs that emphasize collaborative problem solving. The committee did not take any formal votes related to curriculum at the meeting; Colleen said planning and grant-seeking for pathway expansions are ongoing.