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CONTEST EMAIL ARCHIVESDate: 04/21/2006 Subject: Caps & gowns or capsules & crowns Posted on Fri, Apr. 21, 2006
Plantation High School valedictorian Mackenzie Howell had a choice: pomp and circumstance or launch and liftoff?
She chose liftoff.
While her classmates are attending graduation ceremonies, Howell, 17, will compete in the Team America National Rocketry Challenge in Virginia. Howell leads one of the school's rocketry teams, groups of three to 15 students who spend the school year designing, building and launching rockets that bear a payload of a single raw egg.
When the school got word that six of its rocketry teams qualified for nationals in the rocketry challenge, called TARC, nearly 20 seniors faced a hard decision: go to graduation or compete in nationals?
Both events are scheduled for May 20; neither the county school district nor Aerospace Industries Association, which sponsors the rocketry competition, are willing to budge on the date.
At T-minus 28 days, some seniors are still torn.
''I can't imagine the turmoil these kids are going through,'' said Joseph Vallone, a Plantation High physics teacher and faculty advisor for the rocketry teams.
Senior Jacki Klutcharch, 17, would like to go to nationals, but her parents nixed the idea.
''My grandma's already coming down, she's bought her plane ticket,'' she said. 'So my parents said, `you're going to graduation.' ''
In just three years, Plantation's rocketry program has taken off, growing from just a few students to 41 this year. Last year, two school teams placed in the top 10 at TARC nationals.
The TARC rockets, each bearing a raw egg, travel 800 to 1,000 feet in the air, and parachute down to earth. Teams are disqualified if the egg breaks or if the flight lasts longer than 45 seconds.
The rocketry program has also grown in academic rigor at Plantation, going from a small extracurricular club to a full-fledged class this year.
Assistant principal Brougher Bass said he can easily see why the program has grown. ''Who doesn't want to play with rockets?'' he said.
But the program teaches more than that, said Bass.
''It's about engineering, design, teamwork and marketing,'' all skills that easily translate to the world beyond school, he said.
The success has led the school to apply for Small Learning Communities funds to create a rocketry and space engineering program within Plantation High.
Howell, who was on the first rocketry team her sophomore year, says she was undecided until she considered the presence Plantation High's teams will have at this year's nationals, and the long hours she and her teammates have spent on their rockets, working through lunch and showing up at 7 a.m. on Saturdays for test launches.
''I need to be there,'' she said. ``It's where my life is.''
So she will videotape her valedictory speech, which will be broadcast at the ceremony.
Vallone said the school has also offered parents a chance to walk in their child's place. Rocketry seniors can even wear their caps and gowns during competition if they want.
Tim Howell, Mackenzie's father, said his daughter's decision is OK by him.
''It's a one-shot deal,'' he said. ``It's a real exciting time in her life.''
Students who choose to skip graduation could see their competition dreams go up in smoke.
Anything, from an improperly sanded area to a rogue thermal -- a bubble of warm air that essentially traps the rocket aloft -- can doom a mission and destroy a year's work in seconds.
'Most people say `it's not rocket science,' but this is,'' Howell said with a laugh.
Some of rocketry students, including Howell, will travel to Huntsville, Ala., early next month to participate in a NASA-sponsored mile-high launch program. That, too, requires sacrifice, as students will have to miss advanced placement exams and their senior prom.
Senior Stephen Holman, one of the rocketry team project managers, says he doesn't mind missing the dance.
''When you're so dedicated, you can't pass up something like that for something so trivial,'' he said.
Miami Herald news partner WFOR-CBS 4 contributed to this report.
© 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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