Sturgeon City Institutes 2004
Coverage by the Media Institute.

Engineering & Physics

By Kayla Pearson, Sara Albritton
“Three.., Two.., One…, Drop!” could be heard as students lined up to drop eggs down the water tower in one of the three competitions that took place Thursday at the Sturgeon City Institute of Engineering and Physics.
Along with the egg drop were crazy car and tower stacking competitions. Each project was handmade in groups by students using their scientific knowledge learned during the first three days.
The object of the competition was to see which students could keep their egg intact after the eggs were dropped off the water tower at Sturgeon City. Shawnce and Emilee Mallette won this competition.

Egg drop winners!

Shawnce found it humorous, “Its really not that hard, they give the materials, all you have to do is wrap the egg up in it.
After the egg drop came the tower stacking contest. This was an intense competition in which weights were stacked into towers built by the engineering and physics students. The towers were built into sections of walls and base, all glued together with wood glue.
“The key is to build a small compact tower,” said participate Kyle Compton.
He should know. He and his partner, Justin Farnell, came up with a design that won them the contest.
Although the girls were victorious in the egg drop, their original design for “the tower” was not as durable as they had hoped it to be. “None of us really knew what we were doing or where to begin,” a confused Emilee said. “We were inexperienced but at least we had fun and worked as team members.”
The winners of the car race were Julianne Goyena, Emilee, and Shawnce. The materials used were rat traps, wooden wheels, spindles, rubber bands, glue, string, and balloons. To make the car move, the group wrapped rubber bands around the axel of the car and when the rubber was released it cause the car to move.
Julianne said, “We should have made it heavier so it would have gone faster and had a better velocity, but we still won the distance race.”
The point of the lab was to test the different ways a car could move without using an engine, then to test for the best distance and velocity, together the groups teamwork shined, and they excelled with their activity.
“When we compete, we just like to have fun, the other groups worry about what one another are doing and they end up being just alike, we just like to be original.” Shawnce says. Their originality came into a huge part of the competitions that day leading them to win two of three.

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