Hands-On STEM Learning Matters: A Hovercraft Project Success Story
STEM education is more than textbooks—it's about hands-on learning, problem-solving, and real-world impact. This comes to life when students step out of their comfort zones. One day with The Hovercraft Project transformed learning forever for this brave pit crew member.
Early on in the day, the team leader is in charge of assigning different roles to team members. One of those roles is the Pit Crew. As a leader in executing The Hovercraft Project, I just happened to be sitting on the stage near one of these pit crews. This small-framed pit crew member crept over to me, after being assigned his role, and confided that undoing the latch was basically too hard and he was too afraid to do it (and so was his partner). I told him to bring me the hovercraft and we would step through it together. I could tell this guy wanted to complete the steps that Matt had shown him, but he was almost shaking in fear. We took each step slowly. You put your hand here. Use the palm of your hand, not just your fingers. Put some muscle into it. You have control of it, don’t worry. Push your thumb on the safety button…and on and on we went. And over and over again he did it. His fellow pit crew member stood and watched and nervously nodded…but only watching.
What I loved about this kid was that he was willing to do it scared. And so he took his role seriously, gained enough confidence to safely undo and redo the latch and reengaged with his team to assemble the skirt and start the testing process. With that testing process came loud leaf blowers, and both he and his Pit Crew buddy needed noise cancelling headphones to confidently continue. (Don’t worry, the decibel levels of our leaf blowers are safe in short bursts - but it can be overwhelming to some students). When it came to riding on the hovercrafts, they were afraid - but they rode together! And then gradually I would see one of them fly across the room by themselves. The teachers and I saw, first hand, their ability to stick with it and participate with their team.
After all the testing, we do a competition. This is a distance competition - it’s about how FAR they go, not how FAST they go. One of the rules is that with each push, the team must trade out the pilot and the pusher. One by one teams were being eliminated. Foot fault here. Didn’t cross the line there. Until there were only 2 teams left. And wouldn’t you know, one of the teams who was left was the one with the two timid Pit Crew members. How cool was that?!?
Matt instructed the two teams to put on their best pilot and their best pushers in position. Low and behold, the kid who so bravely mastered that latch was sitting as the pilot and I began to panic. I knew what was coming next and I wondered if this would go down in history as a very bad idea. This was where Matt always threw in a lesson about life throwing a curve ball. I moved closer to that hovercraft and waited for Matt to “throw the curveball”. He started the count down to put his thumbs in the air for them to push. 3….2….and then… he paused. He put his fingers to his chin in deep thought and said, “You know, I was thinkin, sometimes life changes things on you…when you’re not ready for it.” And he walked over to the two teams and slowly and articulately asked them to switch their pilots with their pushers. I knew this kid would be overwhelmed. As his team started to process this change, they began encouraging this kid with the change of events. But I know what it’s like for kids like this. Change in ANY form is almost unadaptable. I knelt down next to him as he recoiled at the thought that he would have to be the pusher. He audibly said, I am not strong enough, I don’t want to do this, I’m too weak to do this, I’m not good enough to do this job. His team was still cheering him on. So, I crouched right next to him and said, “well, let’s do it together”. I knew that, best case scenario, he needed to do this push by himself. I also knew that Matt would make an exception if needed. But the two of us knelt down and got ready to push. I did not put my hands out. He had somehow gained the courage and was focused on Matt. 3…..2…1…..push! I saw this kid give a great even push. I quickly glanced at the other team to see if there was any kind of foot fault - and there wasn’t. Off the line these two hovercrafts went flying…and it looked as though the other team was going to win. But then the other team’s pilot decided to wiggle their body a little to try and make it go faster and it actually slowed them down…and our hovercraft overtook the other one and went farther and before we could even take a breath in, Matt called out “This team wins it all!!!”. This kid’s team jumped up and ran out to their pilot and each other and then back to their pusher before this pusher could even comprehend that they’d won. That he had done it. That he had done it scared. I could see the whole line of teachers jumping up and down and clapping. I could see his team rallying around him. I couldn’t hold back the tears…even as I type this, they’re still present.
I started the day telling the teachers that Hovercraft Day has the potential to change a kid’s life and make a lasting impact. And I have no doubt that this small-framed Pit Crew kid will remember this day forever. And you know what else? He wasn’t the only one who learned something today. It was such an epic reminder to me about what it means to do things scared. It may turn out to be the best decision we could ever make.
