Ritzville wins STEM Challenge (junkyard wars)

On October 27, six schools from nine different towns across the Bi-County joined Odessa for the 7th Annual Bi-County STEM Challenge. Odessa, Wilbur, Davenport, Lind, Sprague, Ritzville, Creston and Harrington showed up at the Odessa multipurpose room at 9 a.m. to compete in the annual science-based "Junkyard Wars." Each school brought a team of six students to vie against the other schools for the traveling trophy. Team Odessa consisted of Chance Messer, Colby Sooy, Cole Kissler, John DeWulf, Kiegan Wehr and Colton Hunt.

Created by the science teachers from each of the participating schools, two objectives were set. First, the students were divided up into separate mixed teams consisting of members of each different school. Each of the teams was assigned to build a bridge out of a set of Popsicle sticks that would span a distance of 20 cm. No other supplies were provided. Although many teams were able to span the gap, they were not able to support the required weight. Many were very close to accomplishing this task, but none completed it by the end of the 20 minute time period.

One team persisted a few seconds after the timer and did manage to support the required weight, thus receiving kudos from their advisors.

The next objective required the schools to return to their original school groups and then engineer a device (using a limited amount of given supplies) capable of activating a series of energy transfers/transformations. Each team was allowed to start the apparatus by touching it once, exhibiting a transfer of mechanical energy to a new kind of energy chosen by the student team. The new energy chosen then activated another part of the apparatus which, in turn, transferred its energy to yet another kind of energy. The objective was to have as many energy transfers/transformations as possible using the given supplies.

NEWESD Science Coordinator Michelle Grove was present, taking pictures and video of the entire event. She was very impressed with the challenges that the teachers had created for the students and with how well the students were engaged during the entire day. They even worked through their lunch period.

At 1 p.m., each team launched its trial, hoping to create the most energy transfers/transformations. When the dust settled, Team Odessa and Team Ritzville were tied with seven points each. After much debate, the judges ruled Team Ritzville the winners, since they had the most potential energy transformations left in their device. Samuele Bartolato, Morgan Lane, Cinthia Guizar, Emily Rosen, Emma Aldrich and Sharon Anderson were the winners of the 7th Bi-County STEM Challenge and took home the illustrious Golden Flask Award!

Each team of students represented its school admirably, and the schools can look forward to another set of challenges next year.