Erych Frankenfield, A&E Editor

     The Spectrum program and the Fashion Design 2 class at Penn-Trafford High School have collaborated on a project for the Fairchild Challenge at Phipps Conservatory. The Fairchild Challenge is a series of five challenges throughout the year that bring students to investigate pressing environmental issues and propose potential solutions for them.

    Spectrum sponsor Christina Wukich has had students working on these various projects throughout the year.

    Wukich said that the Spectrum program’s first project was to compare a body system to that of a plant. Their second project was to plan management of stormwater solutions. The program’s third completed objective was to create an infographic on invasive species.

    The team also completed an optional challenge on Urban Gardens and their benefit to the community.  They won a $250 award for the school for first place in the challenge.

    Freshman Dakota Dandrea, a Spectrum student who worked on the challenge, said that the main problem for her was the cost of materials and information gathering.

    “Challenges can include cost because it is hard to find eco-friendly products that are cost effective. Gathering information is another problem because there are also not a lot of sources that post the information we need,” she said.

    Wukich said the main problem for the Spectrum students was finding the time to work on the project.

    “The students all have after school commitments and other commitments that occupy their time,” she said.

    The latest challenge was creating an eco-friendly prom. For this, the Fashion Design class designed a prom dress that was made out of recycled classroom materials.

    Fashion Design teacher Alison Siniawski said she was excited about the two classes working together.

    “I like the idea of students working with other groups and I like to have my students learn ways to make sustainable fashion, because the fashion industry is one of the leading producers of waste in the world,” she said.

    Siniawski added that they chose a 20th century classroom theme for their dress design.

    Junior Alayna Moorhead, one of the Fashion Design students that participated in the challenge, said that she was excited to be able to use her creativity.

   The challenge did not come without its difficulties, however. Using recycled classroom materials such as broken CDs, old classroom maps, aluminum foil and paper clips, the students had to work together to solve the task at hand.

    “We faced [difficulties] with the positioning of the map and having the CDs stick to the aluminum foil,” Moorhead explained.

    Siniawski said that her Fashion Design students found it hard to agree on one design and the map proved to be a problem as well.

    Students are able to look at the Spectrum and Fashion Design students’ finished dress in the art wing.

    Now that the project is over, the classes have submitted their designs.

    The projects will be judged by a panel and the winners will be declared on May 22.