After early setbacks, the teens from KCK today will compete to be the best amateur engineers.

KANSAS CITY, Kansas USA — When a group of Turner High School students entered a national rocketry competition, they were in it almost solely to have fun.

But the team wound up among an elite 100 groups that will compete today in the national Team America Rocketry Challenge in Virginia.

Before they headed to Virginia for today’s finals, Turner High School students Ronnie Lucas (from left), Chris Rodriguez and Kyle Williamson tinkered before launching their rocket during a practice.

It surprised even them. Before qualifying, the team had its share of miserable failures. One embarrassing test flight happened in front of an amateur rocketry group in Columbia.

Fins snapped. Cords ripped. A parachute caught fire. The team members drove back to Kansas City, Kan., with bruised egos and something to prove. They met every day after school until dark.

The contest started with 690 teams. Turner was the only Kansas or Missouri group to reach the final 100.

“Everybody probably wasn’t going to figure us in on this thing — even these guys,” physics teacher Chuck Lauritzen said as he nodded toward his team. “Well, that’s what they learned. Almost anything is possible if you think your way through it.”

Even better, the team’s latest practice scores make them a real contender for the $60,000 in scholarships to be distributed among the best teams.

The contest has an extensive list of rules and safety guidelines, but the concept is simple.

Teams design a rocket to climb 850 feet and return to earth in 45 seconds while the payload, a raw egg, is unharmed. The height is recorded by an internal altimeter. The time is clocked from liftoff to landing. To keep everyone honest, judges provide the eggs.

The contest, which is sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry, is designed to get students interested in the aerospace field. The industry faces a rapidly retiring work force, said Matt Grimison, a spokesman for the aerospace association.

Lauritzen said he expected the contest would be a fun way to get Turner students involved in physics and engineering. It quickly proved to be an obsession for some. The rocket launches alone attracted some members of the track team who were enticed as they watched objects blast over the school’s athletic fields.

Along the way, some members dropped out of the rocketry team, but four of the remaining seven have traveled to Virginia.

To adapt to the conditions in Virginia, the boys will rely on the records from practice flights that among other things indicate the rocket’s performance in various types of weather.

The information will help the team determine how much the rocket should weigh and what type of parachute to use.

The original design began months ago inside Lauritzen’s physics classroom when he asked the team: “You guys want to do this with a computer program, or you just want to fly from the seat of our pants?”

Lauritzen said he was pleased when the students vetoed computers.

“I don’t think kids learn anymore,” he said. “They might learn how to push computer buttons, but they don’t understand anymore.”

Lauritzen said he didn’t want to create engineers who simply understand a concept on paper. He wanted them to build it with their own hands.

So students such as Zac LaGrece learned to design on the fly. They tinkered with PVC pipes, foam and cardboard tubes for the rocket body. They used scraps of foam from car seats to protect the egg, and they threw around math terms during ordinary conversations.

“It’s just real basic science stuff that every middle-schooler should be able to do,” Lauritzen said.

Of course it meant some pain along the way — including the first trip to Columbia, when the team performed pitifully.

“Nothing went right,” said Ronnie Lucas, a senior.

That only made the second trip, when the team posted the official score to qualify for nationals, all the more satisfying. The judge was impressed.“We were just going nuts,” Lucas said.

The entire rocket project cost about $3,000, including airfare and hotels in Virginia. Some money came from a science fund, but the group has relied on donations.

Despite all the extra hours, Lauritzen said he would not change a thing. He is motivated by students such as LaGrece, who will be a science major in college this fall.

“Odds are none of these guys are going to be professional sports athletes, but they could all be engineers,” Lauritzen said.

HOW THE CONTEST WORKS
The goal is to go 850 feet and back in 45 seconds.

Scores are based on how close the rocket comes to the guidelines. A score of zero is perfect. The students receive a point for every foot and second on either side of the targets. For example, a team receives two points if its rocket reaches 851 feet and returns in 46 seconds.

Copyright © 2007, The Kansas City Star.