PARIS, Texas USA — It’s rocket science.  Five students from Chisum Middle School are to travel to Virginia May 17 for the Team America Rocketry Challenge, billed as the world’s largest model rocket contest.

Students of science instructor Mike Moffitt, the Chisum Rocket Club team consists of Brie Chapman, Samantha Kent, Kayla Childers, Keni Gentry, and Miranda Morrell.

More than 6,000 students in 643 teams attempted to meet the rigorous requirements of the contest, but only the top scoring 100 high school teams qualified to compete at nationals.

Chapman said she expects her team to place “among the top 10 teams” at the event held at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va.

“The most difficult problem to overcome will be raising the appropriate funds needed to send the entire team to the fly-off,” Chapman said.

Kent said the best part about this contest is the excitement of traveling to a place she’s never been, and the idea of meeting students from different parts of the country.

The contest requires that students design, build and test a model rocket that can fly, as close as possible, 45 seconds at a maximum 750-feet altitude with a payload of two raw eggs. Eggs then must be successfully parachuted back to ground unbroken.

The top ten teams share a prize pool of $60,000 in cash. The winning team gets a free VIP trip to the Farnborough Air Show near London in July.

“The contest is an excellent opportunity for students to learn hands-on lessons in aerodynamics in a non-classroom setting,” Moffit said. Participants apply concepts of physics like computing trajectory and eliminating drag to their models and see the results immediately.

“There’s a deep satisfaction in knowing things you have learned are helping launch something into the sky,” the instructor said. “This brings these concepts home to the real world for the students.”

Moffitt said students build rockets in a manner “not too far off from professionals.”

The ambitious undertaking has costs, Moffit said, and the team is looking for sponsors to help defray the cost of hotel and travel to the Washington, DC area.

Copyright © 2008, The Paris News.