By Cathy Spaulding
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, so the old saying goes.
Students from at least eight area schools tried to get mousetraps to beat their own paths
Wednesday. Middle-school and high-school teams competed to see who could make the best vehicle powered only by one mousetrap.
The mousetrap-mobiles were part of the 2009 Mathematics and Engineering Design Competition, held at the Muskogee Civic Center. The competition was sponsored by the Muskogee Area Educational Consortium, partnering with Indian Capital Technology Center and the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics. The competition also included written tests in pre-algebra, Algebra 1 and 2, geometry and advanced math.
Coweta High School was the top scoring high school for grades 10 through 12.
Ben Franklin Science Academy was the highest-scoring school for grades six through eight. BFSA teams also built the two fastest mousetraps in the Division Two engineering competition.
Ben Franklin science specialist Taf Morphis said his students learn a lot as they prepare for and compete in the competition.
“They learn math concepts, physical science, engineering — and they have fun,” he said. “Everyone’s trying to problem-solve. They like to see how well they do against other students. We have some competitive kids.”
Morphis said students had several weeks to design and build the vehicles.
The school’s winning team designed its car with a single mousetrap with two foam wheels in the rear and one rubber wheel in front.
“We used the larger wheels in back for traction,” BFSA student Sam Stratton said. “We used the one wheel in front to make it go faster.”
Ashley Stewart, who designed the car, explained that a string hooked to the a back axle and was attached to the mousetrap’s spring.
“It was pretty much a catapult,” she said.
The team based the design on one of Newton’s laws of motion, “to every action, there is an equal opposite reaction,” Sam said. He said the team got three chances to demonstrate the car in front of the judges. A section of the arena floor was taped off in segments of one meter, two meters and several of three meters.
One of the team’s attempts was disqualified when the car veered and stopped before hitting the one-meter mark.
“What slowed it down was that the wheel is broken,” Ashley said.
Designers of Checotah High School’s second-place winning car relied on stored energy and old compact discs to snap their car into motion.
“You wind the string around the axle and set the trap,” Checotah junior Chris Hernandez said, comparing the igniting motion to that of a spinning top. “The snap of the spring is like a sudden burst of energy.”
Results
• Top scoring schools — Division One, Ben Franklin Science Academy; Division Two, Coweta High School.
• Mousetrap vehicle, Division One — 1. BFSA (Eva McKay, Aaron Seal, Sam Stratton, Ashley Stewart); 2, BFSA (Canyun Hicks, Taquan Martin, Cole Whitaker, Zach Whitaker); 3, 7th & 8th Grade Center (Joshua Chisam, Steve Strickland).
• Mousetrap vehicle, Division Two — 1, Muskogee High School (Jessie Payne, Jade Purdin); 2, Checotah High School (Gus Crooch, Riley Duvall, Chris Hernandez); 3, Oktaha High School (Hunt Howard, Amanda Perotta, Isaac Smith, Lillian Van Ha).
• Pre-algebra, sixth grade — 1, Shawn Hackbarth, Hilldale; 2, Garrett Coats, Hilldale; 3, Derek Altman, Hilldale.
• Pre-algebra, seventh grade — 1, Grant Dunn, Hilldale; 2, Peyton Edwards, Coweta; 3, Henry Bibelheimer, Haskell.
• Pre-algebra, eighth grade — 1, Cody Coffman, Warner; 2, Kaitlyn Lewis, Oktaha; 3, Devon Fry, Oktaha.
• Algebra 1 — 1, Billy Gardner, Warner; 2, Devyn Moran, Fort Gibson; 3, Alex Richter, Hilldale.
• Geometry — 1, Christi McAlpine, Fort Gibson; 2, Alexander Rogers, Checotah; 3, Dexter Ellexson, Coweta.
• Algebra 2 — 1, Daniel Mun, Hilldale; 2, Aaron Cockrel, Warner; 3, Rebecca Rackley, Hilldale.
• Advanced math — 1, Blake Whisenhunt, Fort Gibson; 2, Jeff Gunter, Coweta; 3, Eric Palmgren, Fort Gibson.
