TAMPA — In addition to the academic curriculum at Independent Day School - Corbett Campus (IDS-CC), middle school students experience fine arts, physical education, technology and foreign language programs each trimester. They also sign up for Special Interest Clubs that meet once a week all year long and are developed by the IDS teachers to match the diverse interests and talents of the student body.

In the Engineering Club, students design and build Rube Goldberg machines, machines that can complete a simple task, like popping a balloon or flinging an object into the air, using materials such as cardboard, paper towel tubes, clothes pins, mousetraps, duct tape, and glue guns. And for these creative and scientific minds, this is a happy and much anticipated experience.

According to Mrs. Gery Morey, middle school science teacher, “The Engineering Club gives students the opportunity to use both higher level thinking skills and social skills to complete a project. They learn first hand what the effects of friction and force are on the motion of objects.”

The machines are built by teams of two or three students and when the projects are completed, the students are proud and excited to demonstrate their work to the rest of the school community.