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 SPRINGFIELD, Missouri USA — Kickapoo High School's Physics Club placed third out of 100 teams from across the United States at the 2008 Team America Rocketry Challenge in The Plains, Va.
 Jack Watts, Kevin Satzinger, physics club sponsor Jeremy McMillan, Quincy Conduff and Adam Legg hold two of the rockets they designed, built and tested. The rocket Legg is holding is the model they took to the competition in The Plains, Va. Photo: Pamela Spradlin, News-Leader. The contest required students to design, build and test a model rocket that could fly for close to 45 seconds and soar up to 750 feet while keeping two raw eggs in the capsule intact. The Physics Club is in its second year, and this was the first time students qualified for the contest, said Kickapoo physics teacher and club sponsor Jeremy McMillan. To begin the project, club president Kevin Satzinger created a simulation using rocket design software. He based the design on a rocket the Physics Club had built last year, changing the one-egg payload to two. Then club members Quincy Conduff, Adam Legg and Jack Watts got to work building it. It turns out building a rocket can be a lesson in perseverance. The first rocket's parachute didn't work. The second rocket wasn't powerful enough. Finally, the third rocket was a go. Other club members made sure there was adequate cushioning to protect the eggs and tested the rockets, which took several hours to build. Most of that time was spent waiting for the parts to dry, said Watts. Free time was forsaken. Watts, using his experience in shop and electronics, spent two weekends building ignitors for the rockets. The students also worked on an identical fourth rocket to take to the competition as a back-up to their main model. The team from Enloe High School in Raleigh, N.C. that won the national contest will receive a trip to the Farnborough Air Show in London in July. Kickapoo, along with the other top 10 teams, will split a prize pool of $60,000. Conduff, Legg, Satzinger and Watts, all seniors, plan to major in engineering or computer science, pre-med studies, physics and engineering, respectively. Club members
Jack Watts
Adam Legg
Quincy Conduff
Kevin Satzinger
Natalie Rooney
Lara Bower
Robert Fess
Tyler Scroggs
Jean Morano
Caleb Collier
Anisul Huq
Jade Johnson
Brooke McMillin
Michael Jahnke Copyright © 2008, News-Leader.
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