Engineering Sprints
2011 Winners
The goal of the West Virginia University (WVU) Pumpkin Drop Competition is to design an enclosure or apparatus to protect a pumpkin from damage when dropped from the roof of the II story high WVU Engineering Sciences Building. The surviving pumpkins that land closest to a target on the ground and pumpkin enclosures having the best design will be among the winning entries. Adam's physics classes have competed every year since 2010. In 2011, one of his teams won the entire event.
West Virginia Annual Pumpkin Drop Competition
Adam's 2011 physics class had four teams of four or five students. Out of the over 200 teams who competed, Team JELT, named after Jessi, Elizabeth, Landon, and Tyler, won the entire event when their enclosure landed only 1 foot from the target while keeping their pumpkin safe from the 11 story free fall. They used many common materials - a cardboard box, feed sacks for a parachute, etc. When asked why they used these materials, they replied, "they were free."
Using the design, build, test, and repeat method of engineering, students use these engineering sprints to collect data about their ideas and make changes accordingly. The local college, Glenville State College, allows Adam's class to use 6 story Pickins Hall to practice from before traveling to WVU for the competition.
While competing on campus, students tour the engineering school and have a first-person view of WVU. Many engineering students work the event and talk to the competitors about college life. This gives Adam's students a glimpse of a post-secondary education which is an added benefit to this competition.
Adam documents the whole process through video and photography. Students have to explain their design before the drop and explain design successes or failures after the drop. Adam uses this for assessment purposes, but it also serves are a resource for future physics classes when they begin their designs for the project.
College Visit
Documenting