Monessen Elementary students build ‘apple annihilator’

Students in Jennifer Gardner’s fifth grade STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) class at Monessen Elementary Center started the school year with a challenge to build an “apple annihilator.” Students learned the scientific concepts of force and motion by using an apple and other materials to build a wrecking ball, with the challenge to make it swing and knock down a set of markers that stood like bowling pins. Demonstrating how the device works, from left, are fifth graders Destany Behanna, Matthew Speicher, Ari’onna Jones and Natalia Taylor.