CONTEST EMAIL ARCHIVES
Date: 05/30/2006
Subject: Warner Robins teens soar in rocket challenge
Warner Robins teens soar in rocket challenge
By Alline Kent
Macon Georgia
TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER
Warner Robins High School shot for the stars and finished 20th in the nation over the weekend at the Team America Rocketry Challenge, held in Manassas, Va.
The WRHS team of sophomores Kyle Yawn, Ryan Prior, Andy Hull, Zach Russell and Colin Hopf and junior Jaclyn Jennings fired off a rocket that went 782 feet with a flight time of 42.27 seconds.
The raw egg inside the rocket landed without a crack.
The first place team was from Statesville Christian School in Statesville, N.C., with a rocket that reached an altitude of 800 feet on a ride of 43.21 seconds.
Billed as the world's largest model rocket contest, the event is sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry. NASA, the Department of Defense, the Civil Air Patrol and 39 other AIA member organizations also partner in the event.
The top 10 finishers earned a share of a $60,000 prize purse in savings bonds and cash. Raytheon, an AIA member company, is sponsoring a trip for members of the winning team to the Farnborough International Airshow outside London in July.
For its 20th place showing, the Warner Robins High team will receive an invitation to bid for participation in the NASA Student Launch Initiative program.
"We had a really good flight," said Ryan immediately after the WRHS team launched their rocket. "You couldn't ask for a better flight."
At the local team's last test flight before leaving for Virginia, the motor blew up, but luckily that didn't damage rest of the rocket.
This was the first year the school had a team enter the national competition. The team's goal was to finish in the top 25. The team is already planning their return next year.
Gina Russell, a WRHS science teacher who sponsored the team, was pleased with the team's showing, which included earning a prize for best egg protection.
Of the 700 teams that entered the contest, only the top 100, based on qualifying flights, were invited to the national finals.
Warner Robins actually had two teams in the finals: the high school team and another team sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 566, whose members included Michael Graul, Jacob Johnson and Stephen Graul.
The local Scout team finished 55th in the national finals. While they didn't receive a prize, they did get to shake hands with Buzz Aldrin, the Apollo 11 astronaut who walked on the moon. Aldrin spoke at the awards ceremony.
Along with the rocket launches, display booths were set up representing a variety of government agencies and aerospace companies.
A high-powered rocket launch was demonstrated to the students before the awards ceremony.
This was the fourth annual Team America Rocketry Challenge, started to increase awareness in young people about careers in the aerospace industry.
Kathy Casey, assistant principal at WRHS, had soaring praise for the local rocketeers. "Gina Russell started that team herself, got her son involved and some other kids. They have been planning and working for months. We are so proud of the work they did and the way that they make our school look so good," she said.
Casey said the initiative that Russell took in starting the club is typical of the teachers at WRHS. "They make time to be part of these kids' lives, to do things like the rocket team, to take the extra time with our students," she said.
Warner Robins High's science department is known for "going outside the box (or maybe the test tube, in this case)" - with events like swimming with manatees, spending a weekend in the zoo, sleeping alongside animals. The school is heavily involved in science and had more entries in the county science fair than any other school.
Officials at WRHS give credit to the big jump in graduation test scores at the school to the initiative of teachers like Russell and the enthusiasm that activities like the Rocket Team generate among students.
"Science cannot be contained in the classroom," explained Casey, who is a former science teacher herself. "There are things that you have to learn from books. But the kids who really love the science, who are going to be our future scientific leaders, thrive on the experiences outside the classroom."
For more information about next year's contest, go to the Team America Rocketry Challenge Web site www.rocketcontest.org
Alline Kent's columns appear three days a week. She may be contacted via e-mail at AllineKent@cox.net, or by calling 396-2467.
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