2003 20045 National Engineering Week Impromptu Design Competitions
March 1,2003February 286, 20045 (9am-4pm), CKSS High School, Chatham
Hello! My name is Angela Hastey, I am a Professional Engineer, and I am the organizerorganizingof a science/engineering competition for high school students. As an engineering graduate, I am doing this on behalf of the Chatham-Kent Cchapter of Professional Engineers of Ontario.
The Senior Impromptu Design Competition is open to teams of 4 students from any high school and the Junior Competition is for grades 7&8 students in the Lambton-Kent school district. There are no limits to the number of teams from each school that may compete; however, there may be a limit to the total number of teams in the competition, so sign up soon to ensure a spot.
An impromptu design competition is an applied science competition where teams compete against each other to make the best solution to an engineering problem using the materials provided. This competition requires no preparation from the team besides signing up before the deadline of February 24131, 200320045. There is no entry fee. On the day of the competition, the team arrives at the competition by 8:30 am to sign in and at 9:00 am, the rules will be announced, the project will be explained, and materials to complete the project will be given out. There will be a lunch break with lunch will be provided. The team will have until approximately 3:00 pm to complete the project, at which time the testing will begin.
A design example would be: Teams are asked to create a boat that would hold the most weight using pop bottles, straws, string, paper clips, balloons, film containers, Popsicle sticks, a plastic bag, etc. To give you an example, last year’s senior project was to create an apparatus that could launch a piece of PlayDoh the furthest distance in a straight line. The apparatus had to launch using stored potential energy and using only one hand: you could not throw the PlayDoh, for example. Some of the materials were Styrofoam cups, Popsicle sticks, elastics, string, cardboard, tape, balloons, etc.
There will also be a financial component to the competition with each material having a designated value. The total cost to build each team’s design will be evaluated. There are prizes for the model project that best performs the task (in the case of the example, the boat that holds the most weighapparatus that launched the PlayDoh the farthest in the case of the example), most economic/best design, and most original design, as well as a number of door prizes for participants.
The Impromptu Design competition is open to teams of 4 students from any high school in the Lambton-Kent school district. There is no limit to the number of teams from each school that may compete, however, there may be a limit to the total number of teams in the competition, which will be announced later.
The prize amounts are as follows:
Senior Best MostOriginal Design= $200 75 per team member ($300 for team)+ prizes,
Senior
Most Cost EffectiveOriginal/Effective Design= $150 + prizes50 per team member ($200 for team)
Junior Senior Best Design= $50 per team member ($200 for team),
Junior Most Original/Effective Design= $25 per team member ($100 for team)
Other door prizes available for participation
For more information, please feel free to contact me:
Angela Hastey, Chatham-Kent PEO Chapter Education Outreach Coordinator
Home: (519) 355-0147
Work: (519) 436-4600, ext # 2049
Check out our website for more information!