On May 19, the Whitehall High School engineering team’s innovative Brine Blaster was awarded third place in the division two category of the Governor’s STEM Competition. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, mathematics. The competition is run by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and 56 Pennsylvania schools submitted projects to be judged.

Beginning in October, Engineering Club members met every Wednesday to work on their project for the competition. Recent graduates Angelo Daddona and Margaret Tran, along with Kyle Platton, Jacob Kralick and Grant Dieter, worked together. Three students attended in person, and two joined over Zoom.

David Wacker, industrial arts and technology education teacher, is club adviser. Dave Stauffer, the district technology coordinator, assists.

The theme for the 2021 competition was “Improving Pennsylvania through STEM.”

The team had to research and define a real-world problem affecting Pennsylvania residents and create a new device to solve that issue.

Students surveyed WHS teachers and students to determine which topics were most pressing. Results revealed the majority of concerns were about COVID-19 and weather-related challenges. Team members heard many complaints about rock salt and decided to tackle the problem.

“The team thought about how rock salt is used on the roads, and sometimes it gets applied before weather actually happens, and then the salt is useless, because it wasn’t used for the proper weather,” Wacker explained. “So then there would just be salt on the roads, sidewalks and driveways for no reason, and when the salt runs into freshwater environments, it’s a negative thing.”

In order to participate, students had to adhere to the strict rules of the competition, following a rubric to ensure they completed all components of the project. Each team received a $600 stipend to help cover the cost of materials.

The students began their research, discovering how much rock salt negatively impacted the environment, from entire ecosystems to freshwater systems. Man-made structures were also being affected by it.

According to the Engineering Club’s presentation, rock salt and water create “brackish water,” which contains “traces of sodium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, potassium and sulfate.” When animals drink this water, it can make them extremely thirsty and cause kidney disease, especially in birds. Rock salt also destroys plants and soil, harming local crops such as corn and soybeans.

Wacker’s team contacted Dr. John T. Fox, a Lehigh University professor, for help in solving the problem. Fox had done considerable research on water-related issues, including ways to prevent water pollution using technology. Fox gave them several suggestions, including the use of a byproduct of another product, which the team decided to explore.

They discovered that brine, used in industries such as food processing, is an unwanted byproduct. WHS’ cafeteria even had a large amount of leftover brine from foods like pickles.

Their presentation compared rock salt to brine. Brine could actually do a better job keeping snow from accumulating on the ground than rock salt and was able to melt ice at low temperatures. In addition, a lesser amount of brine than rock salt was required for effectiveness.

The team decided to use a Swiffer WetJet to create a prototype that would be able to easily coat surfaces with brine. They made a total of three models. The first model’s wheels kept getting caught in sidewalk cracks. It didn’t work well on steps either, but the spray nozzle worked well to spread the brine.

The second model’s wheels were larger, but they still needed to be bigger, and the device was difficult to turn. They created a handheld sprayer, but did not have a place to attach it to the model.

According to the presentation, the final model was much improved, with “large heavy-tread pneumatic tires” and a spray gun holder that was angled better.

At that point, the students met with Phil Bankos, Whitehall-Coplay School District’s head facility maintenance and groundskeeping supervisor. They wanted his feedback, since his position had provided him with years of experience with ice and snow removal. He suggested the team find even more brine-based products and encouraged them to create a commercial version for the district’s use.

“The future of the Brine Blaster is unknown at the moment because the students chose a Swiffer idea with wheels and developed their own motorized system in order to dispense the brine. They might have a little more work to do to make a product like this marketable for the community,” Wacker said. “Although, because they looked at it from more of a residential standpoint, people may take the idea of using brine and apply it to their driveways and sidewalks.”

After all of their hard work, team members found out they were finalists near the end of April. When Wacker was notified the team had won third place, he wasn’t permitted to tell his students until the official news release from Gov. Tom Wolf came out May 19.

“It was an amazing feeling because these five students worked so hard all year long and put together an amazing project, and their research was outstanding,” Wacker said. “Overall, it was just such an exciting feeling, and when I told them over a Zoom call, they were so elated and had huge smiles on their faces just because they knew that they accomplished something amazing!”

In addition to being recognized in the news release from Wolf, every student on WHS’ team was awarded a $500 scholarship for postsecondary education.

Wacker said STEM-related clubs help students “think outside the box,” which he feels is very important. He said when students work together in a STEM setting, it prepares them, not only for their futures but also for the outside world.

Wacker said developing skills in STEM now “gives the students something important that they can talk about in the future when they’re going for jobs or interviewing for internships or college opportunities.”

“And that’s why we do this,” he said. “To give our students an opportunity to learn and also maybe win a nice prize along the way for their hard work.”