On Wednesday November 15th the Nemaha Central and SPPS 5th graders had a fun Engineering Extravaganza. There were two projects that the fifth graders had to do. They were at home projects which included balloon cars, pasta cars, and newspaper tables. Each kid got to design their own project at home with a bit of class time too. There were also school projects that consisted of card bridges, egg towers, and wall marble mazes.
Rowan Williams said “It was pretty fun, we did a bunch of different things. It took me about a week to build my pasta car.”
The goal for the kids that built the pasta was to get the car to go as far as it could possibly go. To test the pasta cars, the fifth graders would be provided a ramp where they would push their cars off of. Every car got tested three times. In first place for the competition was Lily Romney, second place was Emersyn Novotny, and third place was Breeley Purvis, all of them being from NCEMS.
The kids that chose to do the balloon car had to build a car that was powered by an inflated balloon. They would each get to blow up their balloon as big as they wanted and would get tested three times. The winners were Cecylia Holthaus in first place, Sophia Leonard in second place, and Cally Weeldreyer, Eli Schultejans for third place, all being from SPPS. There was also Adrianna Rider from NCEMS that got tied for third place.
Emersyn Novotney said, “It was fun and I did the pasta car and card bridge. It took me about five days to build my pasta car.”
The last at home project is the newspaper table. They had to build a table out of cardboard and newspaper that would be able to hold some weight. Each table kept on having weight added until it collapsed. In first place was Grady Heiman from NCEMS, second place was Dominic Osterhaus, and third place was Grayson Frehe, they are both from SPPS.
The at school events were timed. The kids would be provided with the materials that they needed and would have to stop once the time went off. With the egg tower they needed to build a tower with straws and masking tape that would hold an egg. It would be time and measured by how high it was. The first place winner was Mariam Nordhus from SPPS, second place was Nora Ranieri from NCEMS, and third place was Rowan Williams also from NCEMS.
In the card bridge activity they would have to build a bridge made out of only cards. They could not use glue or tape.They could, however, have as many cards as they wanted and they could also cut the card however they wanted too. The bridges would be tested on how many pennies it could hold. Breaking the school record and having first place is Keagan Richards from NCEMS with his bridge holding 226 pennies. In second place was Ivy Heinan from SPPS, and in third place was Wylee Bergman also from SPPS.
The last activity that they could choose from is the wall marble maze. They would be provided with the inside of toilet paper rolls to build their maze. They would stick the rolls with tape on the wall with a cup at the bottom. The cup had to be touching the floor. In first place was Blaise Stallbaumer from NCEMS, second place was Katelynn Lueger from SPPS, and third place was Graham Lueger from NCEMS.
Overall the kids had a really fun time and enjoyed doing their projects. The parents were invited to go and watch their kids do their activities. It was really fun to watch as the kids showed what they built. It was a really good event and everyone did an amazing job!
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