Update, June 29: A handful of teams from the Seattle area and another from southeastern Washington state made a strong showing in the finals this month of the American Rocketry Challenge, the world’s largest student rocket contest.
Competition concluded on June 20 and a virtual awards ceremony was held on Monday. The Argonauts, a team from WISE Camps in Bellevue, Wash., finished eighth among the 100 best teams in the country. Five other Seattle-area teams also placed in the finals:
- 31st: Ingraham High School in Seattle
- 37th: Mercer Island Chinese Association
- 65th: Just a Drop in Bellevue
- 91st: Mu Foundation in Bellevue
- 93rd: Emerald City Rocketry in Bellevue
A team from Camas High School in Camas, Wash., finished 18th. That team, along with the Argonauts, earned a NASA invitation to participate in a collegiate level rocketry engineering challenge called Student Launch.
Oregon Episcopal School out of Portland took first place. Kirkland (Wash.) International School was a runner up in the optional presentation competition.
The American Rocketry Challenge is the aerospace and defense industry’s flagship program to encourage students to pursue study and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). It gives students the chance to design, build and launch model rockets, and the contest attracts more than 5,000 students and 600 teams annually.
The Argonauts are a team of students from Bellevue and Issaquah, Wash.
Brendan Williams started a rocketry club at Odle Middle School in 2013 and first competed in TARC in 2015. Odle’s 2016 TARC team won the National Championship and went on to win the International Rocketry Competition. This year’s Argonauts, all high school students, include four alumni from Odle Middle School’s rocketry club.
“In 20 years of teaching science and STEM classes, my experiences with student rocketry are the highlights,” Williams told GeekWire. “The TARC challenge, which varies every year, is conceptually easy but challenging to consistently execute.”
He said teams are pushed to bring together theory and their rocket’s actual performance and then reconcile the two. Team’s test their rocket, form hypotheses about discrepancies from expected results, revise, and then repeat.
“The rapid pace of iteration makes improvements tangible and exciting for the students,” Williams said. “My challenge remains finding the correct avenue for expanding student access to this amazing activity.”
Original story: Finals for the world’s largest student rocket contest will kick off this weekend with 100 teams competing to become national champion — and six of the teams are from the Seattle area.
The American Rocketry Challenge is the aerospace and defense industry’s flagship program to encourage students to pursue study and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). It gives students the chance to design, build and launch model rockets, and the contest attracts more than 5,000 students and 600 teams annually.
The 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, teams from 27 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands will compete in the finals. Those teams include:
- Two teams from Interlake High School in Bellevue, Wash.
- WISE Camps in Bellevue
- Ingraham High School in Seattle
- Mercer Island Chinese Association
- Emerald City Rocketry in Bellevue
Rules require teams to construct craft that can carry one raw egg to three different altitude and time goals: 800 feet within 40 to 43 seconds for their qualifying flights; 775 feet within 39 to 42 seconds; and 825 feet within 41 to 44 seconds. The rocket and egg must return to the ground intact.
Beyond the challenge of launching a rocket, the pandemic created obstacles of its own with Zoom practices, virtual launches and calculations, and new distancing protocols and procedures.
“In a year full of extraordinary challenges, teamwork and determination propelled these talented rocketeers to qualify for the National Finals,” said Eric Fanning, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association. The group is an event sponsor.
The finals will be held at 11 launch sites around the country, including one in Pasco, Wash. Competition dates are June 12-13 and June 19-20. A virtual awards ceremony will be held on June 28. Prizes include $20,000 for the first place team.
