A group of Bronxville Middle School students participated in the Lower Hudson Valley Middle School Regional Competition for Science Olympiad on March 5 at Scarsdale Middle School. They competed against students from across the region and earned medals in several building and study events.

Jean Windels, science teacher and the team’s adviser, said her students have been preparing for the competition since October. Ahead of time, they built and tested their devices and studied for the paper and pencil tests. 

“I’m very proud of this team,” Windels said. “They learned new skills, including Tinkercad, sawing, using a drill, measuring accurately, as well as designing, evaluating and modifying their designs and testing, testing, testing, all within a very specific set of rules. We also managed to have fun at the same time.” 

A total of 28 teams competed in 20 different science events, which included five building events: a balsa wood bridge, an electric motor balsa wood plane, bottle rocket, trebuchet and mousetrap vehicle. The students were also tested on different topics, including anatomy and physiology, ecology, physics, experimental design and the solar system.

•    Sixth graders Hunter Malpass and Zeke Malpass earned medals for their mousetrap vehicle, as well as in the “Write-it/Do-it” challenge, for which Hunter wrote directions to build an object and Zeke had to use the directions to build it.
•    Sixth graders Ainslea Hong and Teddy White earned a medal for their balsa wood plane.
•    Sixth graders Carter Blumenreich and Matthew Moore earned medals for their mousetrap vehicle and their balsa wood bridge. 
•    Seventh graders Kendall Valente and Ava Toolan earned a medal in the “Green Generations” study event, which tested their knowledge of ecology.
•    Eighth grader Jack Goddard competed in the “Crave the Wave” study event.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Bronxville School Foundation, the students used a 3D printer to design and build the chassis for their mousetrap vehicle. This vehicle was powered entirely with a mousetrap pulling a string off the axle. The car was required to move forward 1 meter, reverse direction and travel 4 meters in the other direction.

The balsa wood bridge was tested by determining the maximum amount of mass it could hold. The electric motor balsa wood plane was tested for the longest time it could spend in the air. The bottle rocket, which launched with a ping pong ball attached to a parachute, aimed to have the longest travel time. The trebuchet, which launched a racquetball and a tennis ball with very specific counterweights, aimed to get the ball into a five-gallon bucket.