Rubber bands, rockets propel science champs
The Seattle Times
April 29, 2006 Saturday
Fourth Edition
Bothell kids earn national contest berth
Kayla Webley
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Evan Twedt and Sam Berkman, both ninth-graders, twist a rubber band 17-1/2 times before releasing their elastic-powered car down the hallway outside their Canyon Park Junior High School classroom.
In a nearby playfield, seventh-grader Julia Gabriels test-launches her bottle rocket. Powered with pressurized water, it takes off, shooting straight up into the sky. The parachute didn’t open, so it’s back to the drawing board.
And ninth-grader Allen Zhang and eighth-grader Abby Sloan are finding just the right amount of weight to affix to their balloon for the balloon-race competition. In that contest, the last balloon to reach the ceiling wins.
These are just a few of the 18 Canyon Park Junior High students headed to the National Science Olympiad May 19-20 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.
The Canyon Park students beat out about 20 other Washington teams at the state competition April 8. Canyon Park of Bothell, along with the Excel home-school program from Vancouver, will represent the state.
In 13 years of competition, Canyon Park has never made the trip to nationals. Two years ago the team placed second in the state, but only the top team went to the national competition; last year, Canyon Park placed third, and the top two teams traveled to the national competition.
Each year, the number of teams traveling to nationals varies, based on the total number of teams participating across the state and the country.
This year’s first-place win left no doubt. The students practice for two hours, three days a week after school.
“It’s hard to say what keeps them so driven, but even kids who are not totally motivated in science class come,” said Sheila Guard, who teaches eighth-grade science at Canyon Park and is the team’s coach. “I know what we are doing here is creating a lifelong passion for science.”
Berkman and Twedt built a car, about a foot long, assembled with wood, rubber bands and a plastic propeller.
At nationals, the judges will give them an exact distance that the car must hit to the nearest centimeter; they must also correctly predict the amount of time it will take the car to travel there for the win.
During practice, the team hit their mark within just a few centimeters and came within a few seconds of the correct time.
Twedt competes in the maximum of six events. The majority of his events have to do with building, a skill that he believes will help his future career as an engineer.
Already thinking like a college student, Twedt said he enjoys Olympiads because of the future benefits, and because he gets to have fun with his friends, travel without his parents and eat free food.
“This will look great on college applications,” he said. “I don’t mind if people say it’s `geeky’ because it is going to take me farther in life.”
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