1st Place -- Kalamazoo Hackett High School (team #8)2nd place -- Holland West Ottawa High School (team #7)3rd place (tie) -- Kalamazoo Central High School (team #13)3rd place (tie) -- Holland Christian High School (team #16)
HOLLAND -- Following in the footsteps of
visionaries ranging from DaVinci to the Wright brothers,
high school students across West Michigan are turning their
minds skyward, seeking to solve the problem of flight.
Teams of students from a dozen schools are
preparing for the sixth annual Physics Day at Hope College,
which will be held on Wednesday, May 3. They have been
challenged to design rubber band-powered model airplanes
capable of carrying pennies.
Each team's score will be determined by
multiplying the number of pennies carried by the number of
meters the airplane travels. The result is that an aircraft
that travels farthest but carries little cash may not win
depending on how far a more-heavily-laden competitor manages
to fly.
How to achieve the best balance is one of the
questions that the designers must face. Every team has been
provided with a rubber band and a propeller and some runway
specifications, but from that point they're on their own in
their decision-making.
The flight contest is only one of three events in
which the four-member teams will compete. Later in the
morning, like the television character "MacGyver," the teams
will have a chance to solve a physics problem presented to
them at the time, using only their wits and materials
provided. Following lunch, each team will solve a set of
physics problems.
The event is coordinated by the college's
department of physics. The two teams that earn the highest
scores through the three events will receive a monetary
prize to support the teaching of science at their respective
high schools.
The schools participating this year include:
Bangor High School, Battle Creek Math and Science Center,
Hackett High School, Holland Christian High School, Holland
High School, Kalamazoo Central High School, Lansing Catholic
Central High School, Manistee Catholic Central High School,
Portage Central High School, Rockford High School, St.
Joseph High School and West Ottawa High School.