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If Chris Fischer had a dime for every time he came downstairs and found his eighth-grade sons’ cars smashed to pieces because something went wrong, he would fix so many of them. I could have bought one for her without having to do that. It has exceeded the number of times.
“It’s been destroyed at least 20 times.” Sons Brad and Nathan debrief after completing their “Wheeled Vehicles” event Saturday afternoon at the Indiana Science Olympiad state competition at Purdue Northwest. Mr. Fisher said as he opened it.
The goal was to create a vehicle that could be driven between 8 and 12 meters using household items and mathematics. Both of his first time participants in this event covered 1.18 meters in 5.32 seconds and 66 centimeters in 4.63 seconds for him.
“We started with a completely different part before arriving at this piece,” Brad said. “I think I’m in the top three.”
“I set up a 40-foot course in my basement and set them up at random distances,” said Chris Fischer. “I think you guys easily made it into the top eight.”
The top 24 teams in the state, including 17 teams from Lake and Porter counties, gathered on campus yesterday for the second year of hosting the PNW State Tournament, said PNW Engineering and Science Olympiad State Director Vice Dean Vanessa Quinn. Ta. The top high school and middle school teams will compete in a national tournament later this spring in Lansing, Michigan.
The top four out-of-state high schools are: First place was Carmel, second place was Munster, third place was Lake Central, and fourth place was Northridge.The top middle schools were Thomas Jefferson of Valparaiso in first place and Wilbur Wright of Munster in second place. , Raymond Park was third and Tri-North was fourth, PNW spokeswoman Cale Wilk said Sunday. This is Thomas Jefferson’s 31st state championship and a berth to the national championship.
Quinn said a lot was at stake for the individual high school winners, too, as PNW offered the winners $500 scholarships to their schools. Because high school students have been participating in most competitions for several years and are truly the “best of the best,” she said some of the kids have paid anywhere from $1,500 to $500 per event (up to three events). ), and I fully expected them to be eliminated from the tournament.
The children who won first place in the astronomy event also received solar eclipse glasses.
But what Quinn likes most about hosting the state tournament in the PNW is the fact that for many of the young kids competing, it’s their first time competing on a college campus. They tour university laboratories and work with professors and undergraduate students in an environment that is not completely overwhelming like a large campus.
“This is the perfect size campus to host this event, so kids feel like, ‘College is something I can do,'” Quinn said.
The TJ kids had a pretty good feel about their chances by lunchtime, even if they didn’t remember all the details. Valparaiso freshman Caroline Dyer was invited back to compete with her team one last time, shadowing an animated cartoon she drew during her decompression.
“In ‘Crime Busters,’ we identified unknown powders and liquids while using a crime scenario (made up by one of the professors). And it turned out that one man stole something from another man. “There was one with an ‘L’ on it,” she said. .
Sixth grader Ryan Allred joined the team after his teacher and coach, Carol Haller, told him he would be a great player on the team. He and his partner, Albert and Duncan, competed on a roller coaster. There, as you might have guessed, we had to build a roller coaster and complete the marbles along its trajectory.
“I’m not normally a building person, but I loved the experience and it was nice to feel wanted, so I gave it a try and made the team,” Ryan said. Ta. “All the hard work paid off.”
But his older brother, eighth-grader Nathan Allred, who has been involved with Ryan for several years and isn’t afraid to remind him, has been a little more reserved lately.
“For the past few weeks, we haven’t been able to move up to No. 1,” he said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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