Elementary School Girls And Colorado State University Women Team Up For Snow Sled Engineering Contest
Thursday, February 12, 1998
Note to Editor: Media are welcome to attend the warm-up
session and contest at 10 a.m. Feb. 14 at Pine Ridge Open
Space Park in Fort Collins. Media may interview participants
and take photographs or film footage. The contest will be
rescheduled if there is no snow. Call (970) 491-8255 on
Feb. 13 to find out if the event has been rescheduled.
FORT COLLINS--Members of Colorado State University's Society
of Women Engineers will join forces with fourth, fifth and sixth-
grade girls to test the students' engineering and design skills
in the third annual snow sled contest on Feb. 14.
The contest is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Pine Ridge Open
Space Park in Fort Collins, snow permitting. More than 30 girls
from Beattie Elementary School in Fort Collins are participating
in the project, which is designed to boost girls' interest in
engineering.
"The girls have a wonderful time designing and building
their sleds," said Sue James, organizer and assistant professor
of mechanical engineering at Colorado State. "They get an idea of
what engineering is and how much fun it can be. They also have an
opportunity to work with engineers."
The girls were divided into teams and worked after school to
design the sleds with the help of Colorado State engineering
students and other adult volunteers. The teams used wood, plastic
sheets, inflatable rafts, foam, wax, old skis, rope, oars,
plastic pipe and other materials to build the sleds. While
designing the sleds, the girls learned about engineering concepts
including friction, aerodynamics, strength and stiffness.
The contest will be judged by professional engineers and a
grand prize will be given to the team with the best overall
design. In addition, prizes will be given to each team with the
most points in each of the following categories: fastest time
down the alpine course, most maneuverable on the slalom course
and the safest. After the contest,judgeswill discuss design
aspects with participants.
Event sponsors include Colorado State's Society of Women
Engineers, Dow Chemical, FiberLok, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak,
Lockheed Martin, The National Science Foundation and Woodward
Governor.
This page © 1997-1998 World Wide Express, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Many news stories on RamLine.com come from the Colorado State University Public Relations Office. You can get copies of the news releases directly by filling out this form.