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Our motto is KIDS FIRST... Every Student, Every Day!   Walnut Valley USD is proud to be a National Schools to Watch District with numerous National Blue Ribbon, California Gold Ribbon, and California Distinguished School awards. 

Chaparral Students “Keep it Moving” at JPL Design Contest

NEWS                                                                                    Walnut Valley Unified School District
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   880 S. Lemon Avenue
December 16, 2014                                                              Walnut, CA 91789

 
Contact:                                                   
Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources
(909) 595-1261 ext. 31204

Chaparral Students “Keep it Moving” at JPL Design Contest

DIAMOND BAR, CA—Congratulations to Chaparral Middle School sixth grade students Karissa Wong and Joshua Chou who won top awards in the recent “Keep it Moving” Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) Design Competition.

The team brought home a 4th Place award at the regional contest on November 22 and advanced to the finals held on December 5 at the Pasadena center.

The Chaparral students competed among 20 teams at the finals. Most were at the high school level, but that didn’t stop these determined middle school students.

Wong and Chou won 3rd Place and the Most Creative Design awards.

The objective of the Keep it Moving challenge was to invent a device to move a billiard ball between five to eight meters using three modes of transportation - gravity, any sort of spring, and a free choice of energy like a motor.

They designed an upside-down rubber band catapult to push the ball up to the top of a 20-foot long rain gutter ramp. The ball had to be kept moving (spinning didn’t count) the entire time during the contest.

The billiard ball rolled down the ramp by gravity until it was blocked by a servomotor arm, which moved back and forth to keep the ball moving very slowly for timing accuracy.

At a specific time, a computer commanded the arm to open up to let the ball continue to roll down and hits two triggering switches to turn on loud buzzers.  

The entry also needed to initiate an audible sound as close to 20 seconds as possible, by the ball.  

The Chaparral students clocked an impressive 20.218 or 0.218 second over the 20-second mark!

What was the best part of the experience?

“We liked the meetings and practices at Chick-fil-A best!” the pair exclaimed.

Shown:

Chaparral Middle School sixth graders Karissa Wong and Joshua Chou won 3rd Place and Most Creative Design awards at the “Keep it Moving” JPL Design Competition. Their upside-down rubber band catapult pushed a spinning ball to the top of a 20-foot rain gutter ramp.  The pair spoke confidently while explaining the device and how it fulfilled the contest requirements. (7731)

Sixth grade students Karissa Wong and Joshue Chou won the Most Creative Design award at the JPL Keep it Moving contest on December 5. Shown: The students presented a school certificate to Principal Ron Thibodeaux. 

Karissa Wong and Joshua Chou won the 3rd Place award with their upside-down rubber band catapult pushed a spinning ball to the top of a 20-foot rain gutter ramp. 

Chaparral sixth graders carefully researched contest requirements before selecting materials for their invention.