Day Two Challenges

Monday, October 6^th, 2008

Goddard Space Flight Center

On day two of the challenge, our finalists competed in seven challenges, each giving them the opportunity to work with scientists from both 3M and NASA. During the evening, student finalists were put to the test in front of a live audience. They had to show off their skills and compete head-to-head to determine who would be America’s Top Young Scientist of 2008!

Morning Challenges:

Science Skill Challenges

3M Heat Shield Challenge
Finalists used amazing space-age materials to fabricate barriers capable of providing protection from 2000 degree flames. Using 3M’s Nextel fiber system, finalists were challenged to protect a sensitive temperature probe from a 1650 degree flame jet.

Challenge Hosts: Tom Wood, Caroline Ylitalo
Judge: Judy Heberling

3M Reflectivity Challenge
In certain situations in space, there is often excess light or other radiation contacting NASA vehicles or personnel. Using materials similar to those designed for NASA, finalists contrived a method for "reflecting away," a strong source of light radiation, and also were challenged to measure the efficiency of their work.

Challenge Host: Olester Benson
Judge: Dottie Yunger

3M Sound to Light to Sound Transmission Challenge
This was a "triple threat" challenge...transforming television audio and video transmission signals to visible laser light form, sending that laser light successfully through an optical obstacle course, and capturing that light to be transformed back to a television audio and video signal.

Challenge Host: Eric Jackson
Judge: Mike Husband

NASA Rocket Fuel Challenge
Finalists demonstrated the extreme power available via the chemistry of ethanol...the alcohol currently suggested as an alternative to fossil fuels. Fuels similar to ethanol were employed in the early days of NASA’s aeronautics work. After determining the best fuel formulation, finalists launched small ethanol powered rockets via a rocket sled. Wireless sensors aboard the rocket sled transmitted dates to a computer for analysis.

Challenge Host: Ken Yienger
Judge: Steve Jacobs

NASA Black Hole Billiards Challenge
Game designing has grown to a major presence in our society. Finalists were challenged to design a science learning game based on data gathered by NASA missions investigating the nature of celestial objects. A large "space-time" playing field was warped via "gravitational wells" created by the players; generating a very unusual billiard table.

Challenge Host: Kim Weaver
Judge: Kenny Luna

NASA Rocket Car Challenge
Loud roars amidst clouds of harmless gas gave evidence that "rockets are in the house." Finalists were challenged to make slight modifications to go-kart sized rocket car systems, increasing car efficiency and thrust.

Challenge Host: Carmel Conaty
Judge: Alex Cirillo

NASA Trajectory Challenge
Reflective of the incredible engineering feat of launching a small projectile towards a planet in motion, millions of miles away; finalists will be challenged to predetermine the proper trajectory of a small scale mock rocket as it is propelled towards a target planet.

Challenge Host: Leigh Janes
Judge: Mark Oleksak

Final Challenge (Evening)

Round 1
Students competed in a Jeopardy-style Q & A challenge. The first five students to answer a question correctly won the chance to choose a science challenge they wanted to compete on, and they randomly drew the name of a student to compete against in Round 2.

Emcee: Danny Forster

Round 2
Students competed in pairs (determined by Round 1) in the now-familiar challenges as from the morning round. Each student could compete in only ONE challenge. Points were awarded to the student who completed the task first/correctly, etc.

Round 3
Science Improv Challenges

The next round of the competition presented the three top-scoring finalists, Shyamal Buch, Peter Ku, and Melissa Rey, and with the opportunity to present live, an off-the-cuff presentation of a light-hearted science demonstration. Presentations included:

1. The World's Largest Molecule: finalist used polymer chemistry to amass a very large glob molecule'
2. Noises in the Dark: Resonance: finalist used unusual metal props to generate weird sounds (Peter Ku).
3. Anti-Helium: A Very Heavy Gas: finalist manipulated invisible gas which is six times more dense than air and 36 times more dense than helium.
4. Isaac Newton: 350 Years Later: finalist used modern technique to replicate Newton's classic prism experiment
5. Non-cents: An Imponderable Situation: finalist added an improbable number of metal discs to a glass already filled to the brim with water without spilling a drop of overflow...seemingly impossible (Melissa Rey).

Host: Discovery Personnel
Judges: Dottie Yunger, Mike Husband, Judy Heberling, Steve Jacobs, Alex Cirillo, Olester Benson, Eric Jackson, Sarah Mullins, Tom Wood, Caroline Ylitalo

Check Out Photos from the Day 2 Challenges!

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