NE ASCE YMG & BOY SCOUTS EXPLORE!
Design-Build Competition: What Goes Up...
Saturday, November 20, 2004, the Nebraska Section Younger Member Group teamed with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Exploring program to hold a Design-Build Competition. This is the second year the Nebraska YMs helped with the contest.
Boy Scouts Exploring is a career exploration program for students between 14 and 21 years of age. Open to boys and girls, individual “Posts” (such as Engineering/Architecture/Construction, Journalism, or Medicine) meet on a regular basis throughout the school year, but the single-day Design-Build Competition was open to anyone meeting the age requirement, regardless of whether or not they belong to a Post. Flyers advertising the competition were sent to high schools in Omaha and surrounding areas to encourage those not familiar with Exploring to participate.
Five members of the Nebraska Section – Scott Gilliland, Lindsay Madsen, Marie Maly, Peggy Meyers, and Al Nelson – were joined by a BSA staff member to select an activity and plan the morning. After deciding upon an “egg launch” contest, this group handled everything from advertising, prizes, materials, and location to a short lesson introducing the topic.
The morning of the event, the planning group was joined by other ASCE volunteers, including student chapter members from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and the University of Nebraska – Omaha. The competition was held at the Peter Kiewit Institute at the University of Nebraska – Omaha, and the morning began with a presentation from the University about different departments within the College of Engineering & Technology. The brief lesson on acceleration, energy, and impact incorporated several video clips provided by the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, including testing on temporary barriers, bridge rails, and the NASCAR SAFER barrier. Then, teams of two spent approximately one hour with a variety of unusual supplies, building devices to protect their eggs through both a launch and a crash landing. Testing revealed that though the teams used a variety of materials and methods, they were quite successful in their mission; eventually, scoring came down to aesthetics, creativity, and peer judging because several eggs survived all three launches. Every participant received a certificate and prize bag. The two teams with the highest peer judging scores won popcorn tins, and the overall winners received calculator/tool kits.
A reporter and photographer from the Omaha World-Herald were also at the event, asking questions and taking pictures. An article about it appeared in the Sunday, November 21, 2004 edition of the newspaper.
The Nebraska Section is very lucky to have active student chapters, whose members are always excited for the opportunity to help out at YM events. Their assistance was greatly appreciated, with special thanks to Jason Hascall from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, who obtained the video clips used in the lesson. Younger Members and Student Members alike enjoyed the opportunity to talk to high school students about engineering and mentor the teams as they went through the process of designing and building.
Building their creations!
Final Products (just a few)
Launch time!
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