Bottle Rocket Launch
Blast off and test your aerospace engineering skills in this bottle rocket launch! Contestants will use an ordinary plastic water bottle to create the perfect rocket and compete to see whose rocket can soar the highest. Students will problem solve and attempt to discover what will make their rockets fly further and faster.
Catapult
The classic Catapult. They’ve been around for ages and today you can design and fire a mini one on your own! This is an opportunity to learn about how potential energy is converted into kinetic energy to shoot a projectile. Keep designing and re-designing to get the best catapult you can so it will hit its target every time.
Tin Foil Boats
Set sail and embark on an engineering adventure on a boat of your own creation! Use problem-solving skills along with trial and error to design boats of different shapes and sizes. Will your boat stay afloat as it carries precious penny cargo from one island to the next, or sink before it reaches its final destination?
Marble Roller Coaster
Huge scary drops, twisting and turning, and the famous loopy loops! Observe first hand how energy is converted through downhills and uphills. Learn about how height changes affect the velocity of the marble. Become a roller coaster engineer for the day and see if you can get a marble to stay on track through all the thrill and launch them into the target.
Slingshot Cars
Crash test a slingshot-powered car into a tower of plastic cups! Investigate Newton’s Laws and the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. Engineer your car body to withstand the take-off and impact force! Whose car can destroy the tower the most?
Paper Airplanes
Fly away and explore physics, aerodynamics, and engineering through various paper airplane designs. Test different airplane structures to see which design flies the farthest! Can your plane out-soar the others? Can your plane do tricks like loops and spins? There will be a competition to see how far you are able to throw your airplane, and the opportunity to win a prize!
Coding
Have you ever wanted to be a hacker in real life? This activity might be your first step into becoming one! This is a great way to be introduced to computer science concepts and practice your coding skills! We’ll help you develop your very own code and after that see what you can create on your own.
Rubber Band Helicopter
Ever wondered how a helicopter can fly using propellers? When propellers spin, the helicopter body utilizes Newton’s Third Law of Motion to spin in the opposite direction and stay in the air. Explore the concept of torque and engineer your own helicopter.
Pinwheels
Celebrate Earth Day by designing your own wind turbine. Have you ever wondered how wind turbines work? Wind turbines spin their giant blades to collect and convert the kinetic energy produced by wind into electricity! Using a variety of colored paper and markers, you can simulate this environmentally-friendly energy source through the design of your own pinwheel!
If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to email us at competitions@engineeringexpo.wisc.edu.
