As Calvin Daane raced through the brush, the encroaching flames
hurled furious waves of heat at his back. Deadened grass crunched
beneath the 10-year-old’s blackened shoes as he shot a glance
backward, his eyes met only by a blur of whipping orange and curls
of thick gray.
As Calvin Daane raced through the brush, the encroaching flames hurled furious waves of heat at his back. Deadened grass crunched beneath the 10-year-old’s blackened shoes as he shot a glance backward, his eyes met only by a blur of whipping orange and curls of thick gray.
Calvin, a fifth-grader at Morgan Hill’s Paradise Valley Elementary School, closed his eyes for a moment, straining to hear the shouts of ground-based firefighters as air tankers and helicopters in the dark sky nearly deafened him.
It didn’t really happen. But for Calvin, imagining “what if?” helped him and three teammates design and construct a project they will present Saturday at the San Jose Tech Museum’s Tech Challenge 2005.
The event challenges students in grades five to 12 from Santa Clara and San Mateo counties to create a unique solution to a real-world problem using teamwork, creativity and methodology.
The theme of this year’s event, Battle the Blaze, asks students to create and operate a device that can retrieve water from a lake – in the form of a 4-ounce water balloon – and deliver it to a make-believe wildfire on the top of a ridge.
Last year’s grand prize for grades five and six went to the Pike Punks from Paradise Valley. The school is entering three teams again this year, and two teams composed of students from Gilroy High School, South Valley Middle School and Bellarmine College Preparatory will represent Gilroy.
Calvin and his team, the Nine Volts, have spent the last two months planning and building their contraption, a crane made from wood, string, tin, pulleys and a pair of hand-held kitchen tongs. Their first run, about a week ago, went surprisingly well, they said.
“I learned it takes a lot of teamwork to control just one thing,” Calvin said. “But the hardest part was figuring it all out. We thought about using one of my electric cars to make the wheels work as electric pulleys, but then we figured out it would be better to do it manually.”
At Saturday’s challenge, teams of two to six students will compete in three divisions, and projects will be judged on design methodology, creativity and demonstration.
Teams will be given three minutes to deliver the water balloon to the target, and then they’ll be interviewed by the judges to explain their project and the thought process behind it.
“The Tech Challenge supports the spirit of innovation that put Silicon Valley on the map,” said Melissa Book McAlexander, manager of the challenge. “Each year, roughly 1,000 kids take part. Not all of them succeed, and that’s OK. The Tech Challenge is as much about going through the process of being an engineer and a designer as it is about whether or not a team’s device can actually complete the challenge.”
All six members of Gilroy’s Wrecking Ball Rexes – five from GHS and one from Bellarmine – participated in the challenge last year as eighth-graders and took home second place in design methodology.
They said they wanted to compete again this year because the event is fun, challenging and a good way to make new friends.
On Sunday the team traveled to San Jose to test their device, a motorized car made from Legos and a cut-up orange juice container. A few glitches arose – the treads fell off the car, for example – but the team said they’re working hard between now and Saturday to sew up the loose ends.
“We had to learn to work as a team,” said GHS freshmen Rachel Teenney. “It was harder this year because we’re all in high school now, and we have busier schedules.”
Kim Watkins, a parent volunteer whose daughter is competing, said the challenge gives students practical learning opportunities that they might not get in a typical classroom.
“They always played with Legos as kids, but they’ve never motorized them,” she said. “And as part of the challenge, they have to keep a design journal. That’s something I think they’d use in the real world if they do any kind of work in designing. The interview process is also good for them, because they have to present themselves and tell the judges what they had to overcome.”
The Tech Challenge began in 1988 with six teams, and more than 225 teams will compete this year. Along with traditional award categories, teams also are honored for team spirit, best-looking device, most eco-friendly device and, a crowd favorite, most spectacular failure.
Previous themes include building devices to remove non-native fish from a lake, navigating the surface of Mars and orchestrating a successful rescue at sea.
All three of Paradise Valley’s teams are poised to defend the school’s championship. The Nine Volts had a sneak peak at another team’s project, a tank, but the four boys are confident they’ll take home gold. And if they don’t?
“We’ll try again next year – to get revenge,” said team member Auston Rutledge. “But we’re gonna win.”
If you go
The San Jose Tech Museum’s Tech Challenge will take place Saturday at Parkside Hall, 180 Park Ave., between Market Street and Almaden Boulevard in San Jose. Admission is free. The day begins at 9am with check-in for teams in grades five and six. Grades seven and eight check in at 11am, followed by grades nine through twelve at 1:45pm. Get a complete schedule and more information at techchallenge@ thetech.org.
