Hempfield Area team wins contraption contest at the Carnegie Science Center
Hempfield Area gifted students used nursery rhymes to propel their chain reaction contraption to the top of a competition at the Carnegie Science Center this month.
The 17 Hempfield students beat 34 other teams from area high schools.
“It was a nice surprise,” said Tom Harden, a high school chemistry teacher. “Our best two runs were in the finals.”
The team told the story of nursery rhyme character Humpty Dumpty through its device in the Chain Reaction Contraption Contest on Dec. 11. Two students dressed up like Little Red Riding Hood and Little Boy Blue. Senior Adam Podlaszewski posed as a detective seeking to solve the mystery of Humpty Dumpty's death after falling from a wall, Harden said.
Podlaszewski said the project helped him learn how to complete a task in a group setting where a lot of different ideas and personalities come together for one goal.
“I did a lot of carpentry, some of the intricate mechanisms, making sure everything worked,” he said.
Students submitted progress reports prior to the contest day.
“It teaches the students to stay on track and to meet deadlines,” Harden said. “It really focuses on them solving problems.”
The teams are judged on a variety of levels, including complexity of engineering, the presentation and how well the participants explained the scientific elements behind the device.
Judge Derek Ebeling-Koning, a consulting engineer with Westinghouse, saw Hempfield's contraption in action when the team made it to the top three.
“They did a nice job of making all the 20-something steps they had visible,” Ebeling-Koning said. “It was really nice because it was slow. You could follow it around.”
The competition is a way for students to get excited about science and engineering, while getting them to work as a team, Ebeling-Koning said.
Cornell High School won second place and a team from North Allegheny Senior High School came in third.
Renatta Signorini is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.
