NASHUA – The Academy for Science and Design held its third SPARK Conference of the school year on Wednesday, Feb. 12.

Symposium Promoting Advancement of Real-world Knowledge Conference days are designed to expose students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers, topics and issues. The conference included sessions such as:

The Veggie Car Race – An exploration of mechanical engineering presented by the Daniel Webster College Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Down the Drain – Wastewater flow in Nashua presented by Bill Keating, from the city Engineering Department.

HTML5 Fundamentals.

Intro to Micronations.

Aeronautics’ Greatest Hits.

The Science of Baking, which took place at the Great Harvest Bread Co. with the assistance of Jeremy St. Hilaire.

Stained “Glass” Ice Structure.

Build-Your-Own Mousetrap Racecar.

Stop-Motion Animation.

Snowflake Science.

The Ethical Leader, presented by Maj. Kevin Harbison.

Thermal and Radiant Energy, presented by Dan Wolaver, an electrical engineer and retired Worcester Polytechnic Institute professor.

ASD Red Cross High School Club, presented by Maura Lockwood, of the American Red Cross.

Identifying and Protecting your Intellectual Property, presented by Kimberly Peaslee, of Divine Millimet Attorneys at Law.

“I really liked The Veggie Car Race because it tested our skills to build cars out of vegetables,” said Ben, an eighth-grader. “Then we got to race them.”

The students first built race cars out of vegetables, having to include at least three different produce items, and then raced them down a ramp the engineering students built for them.

“The Daniel Webster ASME was happy to celebrate engineering week with a group of future engineers,” said Meridith Campbell, chairwoman of the Daniel Webster College ASME student chapter. “We loved seeing the cars that they made out of vegetables and helping them improve their designs.

“I think we had as much fun as they did.”

HTML5 was run by Bill Cava, who brought a wealth of knowledge on the subject to the students while engaging them in a fun and interesting way. The students learned about the new JavaScript APIs and semantic markup that makes HTML5.

“HTML5 was my favorite session because it was interesting and we learned a lot about coding, and Mr. Cava made it really interesting and cool to learn about,” said Liam, an eighth-grader.

The academy has two more SPARK Conferences scheduled this year, and presenters and donations are always welcome. For more information, visit www.asdnh.org.

– Submitted by Academy for Science and Design