Build a Better Mousetrap Car!

Seminole Ridge during the second run of their mousetrap powered vehicle at the February 8, 2014
SECME Engineering Olympiad on Saturday, February 8, 2014.
DISTANCE: 2100 centimeters
TIME: 19.8 seconds

"IM" IS OUT - THINK IT'S POSSIBLE! Hawks Fly 2nd Place Finish

THINK IT'S imPOSSIBLE? THINK sySTEMatically. THINK SECME! Seminole Ridge SECME takes second place during district engineering Olympiad

Seminole Ridge SECME is the winner of five trophies and ribbons at the 2013 SECME Olympiad engineering competition, including second place overall for Palm Beach County! Teams from sixteen high schools in Palm Beach County participated in the engineering contests at Santaluces Community High School in Lantana on Saturday, February 23, 2013. Students squared off in competition to race mousetrap powered model cars, launch model rockets, build and break model balsa wood bridges; in general knowledge games during the "Brain Bowl"; and in literary and artistic competitions with essays, banners, and posters.

(Photo: the SRHS SECME team; front row, L-R: Mr. Ed Batchelor and Mr. Erich Landstrom; back row: Nicholas Smith, Kimberly Smith, Kyle Reilly, Patrick Dickson, Kyle Whirlow, Victoria Simmons, James Carter, Cody Summerlin, Jarrett Rimel, and Sam Smith.)

The competition of cogitators was fierce. And the Hawks soared high: honorable mention - balsawood bridge; second place - banner; second place - water rocket (Team Seniors); first place - water rocket (Team Osprey); second place overall in the entire district! Coaches Erich Landstrom and Ed Batchelor, the school SECME coordinators, and principal James Campbell congratulate the Hawks on their awesome achievements.

(Click on the first picture to flip through the Seminole SECME team competing at Santaluces High School for the 2013 Palm Beach County School District SECME Olympiad on Saturday, February 23, 2013)

20130213 SDPBC SECME Olympiad

Elementary Students Building Bridges, Bottle Rockets and More In 2013 SECME Olympiad

Nearly seven hundred students from 51 schools recently participated in the 2013 Palm Beach County SECME Elementary Olympiad at Santaluces High School.  SECME’s mission is to increase the pool of historically under-represented and under-served students who will be prepared to enter and complete post-secondary studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), thus creating a diverse and globally competitive workforce.

Overall District Winners:

• Honorable Mention:    Galaxy Elementary
• Third Place:                 Timber Trace Elementary   
• Second Place:              Del Prado Elementary
• First Place:                  Roosevelt Elementary School

The following schools placed in individual events:

This Is Why We Will Win the Olympiad This Year, Part II

This Is Why We Will Win The Olympiad This Year, Part I

Technical Drawing for SECME submissions

Technical drawing, also known as drafting, is the technique of creating engineering drawings done with compasses, rulers, and computers. Coach Ed Batchelor has created a pamphlet on technical drawing to introduce SECME students to technical drawing. Click here for the Technical Drawing for SECME submissions PDF.

Click here for a fast, Flash based introduction from Engineering the Future. I especially like how EtF handles orthographic projections.

Drawings which contain all the information needed to make the object you have designed, including dimensions and details of components, materials and assembly instructions, are called working drawings. Although working drawings for simple products may sometimes be done in isometric or planometric projection, the normal drawing technique for working drawings is orthographic projection. The BBC GCSE Bitesize has more.

Palm Springs Middle And Suncoast High Continue To Stand Out In SECME Competitions

Students from 16 middle schools and 15 high schools participated in the 2012 Palm Beach County SECME Secondary Olympiad on February 25 at Santaluces High School. During the Olympiad, students participated in a variety of competitions which included mousetrap cars, water rockets, bridges, brain bowl, banners, essays, and posters. The theme for this year’s SECME program was “SECME: Plan It ٠ Build It ٠ Live It!”

“SECME is an excellent program that provides students with opportunities to apply hands-on problem solving techniques to real engineering challenges. They get to design, test, re-design, and re-test until they produce a working model – pretty much the same way engineers do their jobs,” said Bruce Wear, SECME District Coordinator.

The following schools were the overall district winners at the secondary level:

Honorable Mention: Don Estridge Middle School
Second Place (TIE): Bak Middle School of the Arts
Second Place (TIE): Eagles Landing Middle School
First Place: Palm Springs Middle School

Honorable Mention: John I. Leonard High School
Third Place: Seminole Ridge High School
Second Place: Royal Palm Beach High School
First Place: Suncoast High School

The following individual students, teams, and/or schools were the top winners in individual events:

ESSAY:
First Place: Eagles Landing Middle – Sarah Palumbo
First Place: Suncoast High – Lily Shrayfer

BANNER:
First Place: Bak Middle SOA
First Place: Seminole Ridge High

POSTER:
First Place: Loggers Run Middle – Ashley Ramirez
First Place: Jupiter High – Selena Harman

BRAIN BOWL:
First Place: Eagles Landing Middle
First Place: John I. Leonard High

WATER ROCKET:
First Place: Bak Middle SOA – Team Flyers
First Place: Suncoast High – Positively Charged

BRIDGE:
First Place: Don Estridge Middle – The Smarticle Dragons
First Place: Suncoast High – Positively Charged

MOUSETRAP CAR:
First Place: Palm Springs Middle – The A-Team
First Place: Suncoast High – Just Do It

Palm Springs Middle School and Suncoast High School will represent the school district at the SECME National Student Competition which will be held on June 26, 2012 at the University of Alabama. In addition, essays written by Sarah Palumbo from Eagles Landing Middle and Lily Shrayfer from Suncoast High will advance to the national competition.

This was the fifth overall win for Palm Springs Middle School and the eighth overall win for Suncoast High School.

According to Carol Marshall Smith, SECME Coordinator at Suncoast High School, “SECME is the bridge between academics and application. It teaches you to not become satisfied and to always strive for improvement.”

SECME (Science, Engineering, Communication, and Mathematics Enrichment) is a program that strives to increase the pool of students who will be prepared to enter and complete post-secondary studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This program reaches out to students who are historically under-represented in the STEM fields with the long-term goal of creating a more diverse workforce. The School District of Palm Beach County supports the goals and mission of SECME.

For more information, contact Bruce Wear, SECME District Coordinator, at (561) 357-1125 or bruce.wear@palmbeachschools.org.

PLAN IT – BUILD IT – LIVE IT – WIN IT!

PLAN IT – BUILD IT – LIVE IT – WIN IT! Seminole Ridge Hawks take third place during district engineering Olympiad

Seminole Ridge SECME is the winner of six trophies and ribbons at the 2012 SECME Olympiad engineering competition, including third place overall for Palm Beach County! Teams from fifteen high schools in Palm Beach County participated in the engineering contests at Santaluces Community High School in Lantana on Saturday, February 25, 2012. Students squared off in competition to race mousetrap powered model cars, launch model rockets, build and break model balsa wood bridges; in general knowledge games during the "Brain Bowl"; and in literary and artistic competitions with essays, banners, and posters.
Seminole SECME takes 3rd place in 2012 Olympiad
The competition of cogitators was fierce. And the Hawks soared high: honorable mention - brain bowl; honorable mention - mousetrap powered vehicle; second place - water rocket; second place - poster; first place - banner; third place overall in the entire district! Coaches Erich Landstrom and Ed Batchelor, the school SECME coordinators, and principal James Campbell congratulate the Hawks on their awesome achievements.

(Click on the first picture to flip through the Seminole SECME team competing at Santaluces High School for the 2012 Palm Beach County School District SECME Olympiad on Saturday, February 26, 2012)

20120225 SDPBC Secondary SECME Olympiad

The Eleventh Hour

2011-2012 Seminole Ridge SECME

On Saturday, February 18th, the Brain Bowlers will be in Miami with Mr. Landstrom at the exact same time the VEX robotics team will be in Orlando in Mr. Batchelor!

Brain Bowlers: the US DOE National Science Bowl regional qualifier (South Florida Regional Science Bowl) is the 18th in the NASA WaterSCAPES University Research Center at Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St. Miami, FL 33199

VEX Team: the VEX Robotic Competition World qualifier is the Clash in Clermont at Carver Middle School, 1200 N. Beecher St., Leesburg, FL. Be there by 9 AM.

On Tuesday, February 21st, Seminole SECME is on a fieldtrip to Boca Raton. Florida Atlantic University’s Engineering Week pre-college presentation to hear Dr. Mohammad Ilyas, Interim Dean of the FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science. High school students participate in engineering competitions sponsored by FAU engineering student clubs and professional societies. Students also have the opportunity to tour engineering labs, the college's new Platinum LEED Certified Green Building and have lunch on campus. A US Air Force F-22 Mini Raptor was on display at Engineering East, building 96.

We will also make a side trip to the Children's Science Explorium at Sugar Sand Park for the Blue Man Group—Making Waves exhibit. The 1,500 square foot exhibit features the fun-filled signature Blue Man style that encourages exploration of the wonder and joy of sound!

And on Saturday, February 25th, it's Superbowl of SECME: the engineering Olympiad at Santaluces High School! YOU MUST ATTEND!!! The competition will be intense when the Hawks go up against the 14 other high schools that challenge us in the Palm Beach County SECME District Olympiads, held Saturday, February 25, from 8:00 am – 3:30 pm at Santaluces High School. During the Olympiad, students will participate in a variety of competitions which will include racing mousetrap power rovers and water rockets, model bridges, Brain Bowl, poster and banner display. The theme for this year’s SECME program is “Plan It٠Build It٠Live It!”. The winning entries in the essay and mousetrap car competitions will advance to the SECME National Student Competition which will be held in late June, at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Banner

VEX

MTV

MTV

Smooth Sailing at the Gotta Regatta

(Click on the first picture to flip through the Seminole SECME team at "Let's Build Something Together" challenge "Gotta Regatta" rain gutter race during the SECME engineering Olympiad for elementary students on Saturday, February 11, 2012)

20120211 LBST Gotta Regatta at SDPBC Elementary SECME District Olympiad

The SECME program for the School District of Palm Beach County hosted its engineering Olympiad for elementary school children on Saturday, February 11th. In addition to students bringing and testing their previously constructed projects with them, such as launching water rockets and racing mousetrap powered cars, during the lunch Seminole SECME hosted a special on-site "Let's Build Something Together" challenge for them. Last year, it was the Design Squad pop-fly challenge. This year, it is the Gotta Regatta Raingutter Race. We challenged 51 teams of nearly seven hundred students to make the fastest ferry for a Ping-Pong passenger! Design and build a boat that travels across a container of water.

Gotta Regatta is adapted the Design Squad "Watercraft" and "Paddle Power" activities.
http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/resources/watercraft.html

http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/resources/paddle_power.html

Thank you to our first-mate sponsors Lowe's Home Improvement store #1962, the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, and the Hawks of Seminole Ridge SECME: Captain Caitlin Miller, Kristen Cousins, Raychell Harris, and Ronit Liberman!

SECME Songs: DJ Schmolli - Super Bowl Anthem

DJ Schmolli - Super Bowl Anthem [LMFAO vs. Madonna vs. Europe vs. Queen vs. House Of Pain vs. Reel 2 Real vs. Tag Team vs. MC Hammer vs. Metallica vs. White Stripes & others]

Mashuptown.com posted this for "Super Bowl" weekend, and it's perfect for the SECME Olympiad, too. DJ Schmolli created this fantastic Mashup with the greatest stadium anthems to get us in the right mood: "Every day I'm footballin' "

Video:

Alternative VIMEO LINK

MP3: (via AudioPorn Central)

DJ Schmolli - Super Bowl Anthem [LMFAO vs. Madonna vs. Europe vs. Queen vs. House Of Pain vs. Reel 2 Real vs. Tag Team vs. MC Hammer vs. Metallica vs. White Stripes & others]

Tracklist:
LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
Madonna – Celebration
Europe – The Final Countdown
Queen – Another One Bites The Dust
House Of Pain – Jump Around
Reel 2 Real – I Like To Move It
Tag Team – Whoomp (There It Is)
The Vinyl Rippers – Rapper’s Delight
Labrinth ft. Tinie Tempah – Earthquake
MC Hammer – U Can’t Touch This
Queen – We Will Rock You
Metallica – Enter Sandman
White Stripes – Seven Nation Army

SECME Songs and Jock Jams

Whoo-hoo! Three weeks to Olympiad! Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

Jock Jams, Volume 4

Olympian Tasks!

(Click on the first picture to flip through the Seminole SECME team working hard to do their best for tomorrow's Olympiad submission deadline)

Hundreds Of Students To Compete In Upcoming SECME Olympiads

The competition will be intense when students from 55 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, and 15 high schools participate in one of two Palm Beach County SECME District Olympiads scheduled for February.

SECME (Science, Engineering, Communication, and Mathematics Enrichment) is a national organization with the goal of increasing the pool of students who will be prepared to enter and complete post-secondary studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, thus creating a diverse and globally competitive workforce.

The Elementary SECME District Olympiad will be held Saturday, February 11, from 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at Santaluces High School.

The Secondary SECME District Olympiad will be held Saturday, February 25, from 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at Santaluces High School.

During each of the Olympiads, students will participate in a variety of competitions which will include bridges, mousetrap cars, water rockets, Brain Bowl, essays, poems, banners, and posters. The theme for this year’s SECME program is “Plan It٠Build It٠Live It!”. The winning entries in the essay and mousetrap car competitions will advance to the SECME National Student Competition which will be held in late June, at The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa.

Olympiad supporters include: Florida Atlantic University College of Engineering and Computer Science, Hazen and Sawyer, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, CH2M Hill, and FPL. Florida Atlantic University awards up to 25 four-year scholarships each year to qualified SECME students. SECME participation has been credited for encouraging career and occupational selections, stimulating college and university visitations, as well as establishing mentoring and internship programs for students with area businesses.

Bruce Wear, SECME district coordinator, says the competitions develop high-level thinking and problem-solving skills. “SECME is an excellent program that provides students with opportunities to apply “hands on” problem solving techniques to real engineering challenges. They get to design, test, re-design, and re-test until they produce a working model – pretty much the same way engineers do their jobs.”

For further information please contact Bruce Wear, 561- 357-1125 or email bruce.wear@palmbeachschools.org.

Seminole SECME wins silver

2nd place overall Olympiads in the district!
Seminole Ridge SECME won four trophies at the 2011 SECME regional Olympiad, including second place overall for the county! Teams from twenty high schools in Palm Beach County participated in the engineering contests at Santaluces Community High School in Lantana on Saturday, February 26, 2011. Students squared off in racing mousetrap powered model cars, launch model rockets, build and break balsa wood bridges; in general knowledge games during the "Brain Bowl"; and in literary and artistic competitions with essays, banners, and posters.

The competition of cogitators was fierce, but the Hawks, those gladiators of grey matter, came in third in the poster competition, second in the water bottle rocket competition, and first in the banner competition. This put overall Olympiad performance second in the entire district! Principal Lynne McGee, and Erich Landstrom and Ed Batchelor, the school SECME coordinators, congratulate the Hawks on their awesome achievements! Team captain Cindy Dosch commented “Proud of you guys! We did awesome against all odds.” Freshman Sam Smith posted “Today, those months of work on that mousetrap car came into fruition, and the hard work showed. It destroyed the competition without a problem, and couldn’t have done better on the test run. Even though it didn’t place, and we have our suspicions as to why it didn’t, I’m proud of Murphy’s Law, because it has overcome every one of the obstacles it was presented with.”

2011 Seminole SECME Olympiad

POSTER: Students create posters based on the Olympiad's theme “SECME: STEMulating Minds”
• Third Place: Seminole Ridge

Poster, 3rd place: senior Brie Codner Poster, 3rd place: senior Brie Codner

BANNER: Students create banners based on the Olympiad's theme. Banners must contain the school mascot and SECME logo.
• First Place: Seminole Ridge

WATER ROCKET: Students build a model rocket around a standard 2 liter soda bottle. All teams must have: rocket (constructed and launch-ready); design drawing blueprint of rocket; technical report on rocket; and mission patch design. At the Olympiad, rockets will be "fueled" with 355 milliliters of water and 60 PSI of air pressure. The rocket with the greatest combined "hang time" airborne and score will be declared the winner
• Second Place: Seminole Ridge

Water bottle rocket, 2nd place: Chris Garrett (retired rocket engineer with Pratt & Whitney) Damian Coleman, Cindy Dosch

Water bottle rocket, 2nd place: Damian Coleman, Cindy Dosch

OVERALL HIGH SCHOOL PALM BEACH COUNTY CHAMPION:

• Second Place: Seminole Ridge High

• First Place: Suncoast High Seminole SECME - 2nd place Olympiad overall in the county!

MOUSETRAP CAR: Students build cars that are propelled by the spring of a mousetrap. All teams must have a mousetrap car (constructed and running), design drawing blueprint of mousetrap vehicle (MTV), technical report on MTV construction and operations. A combination of the scores from the race, the report, and the drawing is used to determine the winner.
Mousetrap Vehicle: Sam Smith and Cody Summerlin

Inspecting the Mousetrap Vehicle: (left to right) Sam Smith, Cody Summerlin, Dr. Thelma Jackson, and AJ Fandrey

BRAIN BOWL: Students compete against the clock and each other in a quiz show style contest filled with science and math questions.
left to right: Arnold Banner, Joe Pavicic, Yiro Shimabukuro, Robert Botkin



SECME is too serious to be taken seriously
SECME is too serious to be taken seriously
Seminole SECME Captain Cindy Dosch holding aloft our trophy
GO HAWKS!

We look unbelievable!

DJ Y alias JY - The Unbelievable Look (Mashup) from checkdissout on Vimeo.

The Olympiad is this Saturday the 22nd at Santaluces High School, and our submissions look unbelievable! Check it out.

Del Prado Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, Glade View Elementary, and Beacon Cove Intermediate Take the Top Spots at the 2011 Palm Beach County SECME

Over five hundred students from 52 schools participated in the 2011 Palm Beach County SECME Elementary Olympiad on February 12 at Santaluces High School. The following schools were the overall district winners:
1st Del Prado Elementary School
2nd Roosevelt Elementary School
3rd Glade View Elementary School
4th Beacon Cove Intermediate School

Let's Build Something Together: Pop-Fly

That was fun! Thank you to manager Rick Case and the staff of Lowe's Home Improvement store #0654, Sam Smith and Cody Summerlynn for your help yesterday at the SECME Elementary Olympiad. You were indispensible for the success of the inagural Lowe's "Let's Build Something Together" Challenge: Pop-Fly!


Here are the scores for the challenge solution:
Honorable Mention: tied at 90 pts - Berkshire Elementary (50 + 40) and South Glade (50 + 40)
Third Place: at 110 pts - Whispering Pines Elementary (60 + 50)
Second Place: tied at 120 ppts - Discovery Key Elementary (50 + 70) and Palm Beach Public Elementary (60 + 60)
First Place: at 130 pts - Timber Trace Elementary (70 + 60)

Technical Drawing paper at Easel Art

To compete in the SECME Olympiad bridge design, mousetrap car design and the water rocket design competitions, a team must enter all parts of the design competition. A team must enter in all of the following categories for each competition a bridge technical drawing, a mousetrap car technical drawing, and a water rocket technical drawing.
Clearprint 24"x36" 16lb 1000H Title Block/Border Vellum

The bridge and the rocket drawings may be on either 22” x 34” or 24” x 36” size drawing paper. No margin is required around the outside of the drawing. No mounting of the drawing or frames are allowed.

For the mousetrap car, the size of the engineering paper is required to be the standard 18” x 24” (allowing for the drawn one inch margin, the actual drawing is to cover an exposed area of 16” x 22” of the paper), otherwise it will not be evaluated. No mounting of the drawing or frames are allowed.

Where can I get technical drawing paper?
Seminole SECME purchases technical drawing paper at Easel Art Center, 810 Park Ave, Lake Park, FL (south of Northlake Blvd). Easel is on the south side of the street and the east end of the plaza, located after the post office and oriental market. Their phone #561-844-3111

As of May 2010, their price for 24x26" plain paper (used for practice) was $1.75 and for 24x26" title boxed paper (used for the final submission) was $2.75. While no teacher discount was available, they were kind enough to give me a 10% student discount.

2010 Seminole SECME Olympiad

Music: "The Hunter and the Kracken, pt. 2"