Congressional Science Fair

Congratulations to Chipmunks selected to attend the Congressional Science Fair in Washington DC.

A number of Chipmunks attended the Ying Tri-Regional Science Fair last spring. The students who were the county winners, + the ISEF highschool winners and the Stockholm JR Water Prize winners have been selected to attend.

The following members from our group who have been invited are:

Essex County Champions- Ben C, Bradley N, Vienna A
Clinton County Champions- Grace S
Stockholm Water Prize- Harrison K, Matthew C, Alexandra R

As this trip is ACTUALLY our NOVEMBER meeting, I am moving the November meeting to November 7. This will be the first MONDAY of NOVEMBER. It is our service project meeting.

Engineering Tech Challenge

Its time for sign up for Engineering Tech Challenge. Anyone in Grades 5-12 may participate. It is an opportunity to compete in a project that teaches the engineering design process. Clinton and Essex County will be hosting a separate event for kids in Grades 3-4

You can read more about it here: http://techchallenge.thetech.org/the_challenge.cfm

We will form teams of 2-6 kids for each of the grade groups: Grades 3-4, Grades 5-6, and Grades 7-8

FROM the TECH CHALLENGE WEB SITE:

This Year's Challenge

Create a device that can collect plastic from the ocean without harming marine life. 

Rules

• Teams can have 2-6 members.
• Each team's unassembled device must fit into a 4 X 4 X 4 foot box.
• Teams then have 2 minutes to assemble their device.
• The goal is to remove 2 (two) 2-liter bottles and 3 (three) bottle caps from the test rig in 3 minutes or less.

Learn more about the rules.

Test Rig

Your device must remove plastic from a model called a test rig. Like the real Pacific Gyre, the test rig contains both plastic trash and marine life (or, at least, models of plants and fish). It does not have water in it. You will have three minutes to remove three bottle caps and two bottles from the test rig.
Learn more about the test rig.

Judging Criteria

Judges will award points for the following:

• Device Performance-How much plastic did your device remove? Did it harm any sea life?
• Engineering Process and Journal-How well did your team document its ideas and efforts? How well did you follow the engineering design process?
• Style and Presentation-How creative were your costumes? How clear and concise were your explanations?
• Other categories to be determined on event day, such as teamwork.

To learn more about judging criteria, click here.

We will be competing via TELECONFERENCE as the competition takes place in California. We will be piggy backing on with the set-up through Essex County's 4H STEM team (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)