MHS Honors Physics students won first place among all schools in the Robinson High School Engineering Competition on Thursday. The students spent several weeks working in teams of two designing and building toothpick bridges, mousetrap cars, catapults, and rubber-band-powered flyers. They tested their models against students from ten area schools in the competition.
Jack Lapeyrouse and Aiden Hudson won first place overall in the team competition by dominating the individual events, taking first place in the toothpick bridge, mousetrap car, and catapult contests. All of Mattoon’s teams placed in the top three of at least one competition. Chloe Hettinger and Kaitlyn Parker finished second in the toothpick bridge competition while Daniel Catt and Keenan Kersh placed third, J.D. Sullivan and Slater Trier took second in the mousetrap car competition, and Ryan Stevens and Luke Ferris placed third in the catapult competition. Lapeyrouse, Hudson, Sullivan, and Catt also took second place in the wild card competition, in which they built an 8-foot-tall free-standing tower in ten minutes using drinking straws and tape.
I am proud of our students for putting so much hard work into preparing for this competition. They learned a lot about engineering principles and applying physics to solve engineering challenges, and they did a great job working together to earn a first place finish.
Below, the team is shown with their awards and some of their devices. Back row, left to right: J.D. Sullivan, Slater Trier, Aiden Hudson, Jack Lapeyrouse, Keenan Kersh, Kaitlyn Parker, Luke Perry. Front row, left to right: Ryan Stevens, Daniel Catt, Chloe Hettinger
Below, former MHS Teacher,Jim Sparks preparing to test Jack Lapeyrouse and Aiden Hudson’s toothpick bridge.
