For immediate release:
April 21, 2011
Baldwin High School team places third in national design challenge
TOPEKA— For the second consecutive year, students at Baldwin High School, USD 348 Baldwin City, have placed in the national Real World Design Challenge. Earlier this week, the team was awarded third place in the national design competition, coming in behind teams from Connecticut and Washington.
Teams from across the country took part in the national competition at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. this week. The Baldwin High School students won the right to represent Kansas by winning the state competition earlier this year. The school’s team has won the state competition each of the past three years, and last year the Baldwin High School team was named the national Real World Design Challenge champion.
“The competition was very challenging this year and the team members worked well together,” said team coach Pam Davis. “Every year that they compete they learn more and the trip to Washington, D.C., is an awesome way to show what they have learned to professionals, as well as to have some fun. The teams that were in the finals were very competitive. Our team did their best work and they are very happy with the outcome this year.”
The Real World Design Challenge is an annual competition that provides high school students grades 9-12 the opportunity to work on real world engineering challenges in a team environment. Each year, the teams are asked to address a challenge confronting a leading industry. This year’s challenge was to use aeroelastic tailoring to design the exterior geometry and interior structure of an airliner wing in a manner that maximizes both fuel efficiency and aerodynamic efficiency.
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Baldwin High School Team places third
April 21, 2011
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The members of the 2011 Baldwin High School team are:
• Brandon Baltzell, grade 12
• Carson Barnes, grade 12
• Kaitlyn Barnes, grade 10
• Carrie Dietz, grade 10
• Mac Halpin, grade 10
• Mackenzie Johnson, grade 10
• Austin Kraus, grade 10
The team’s mentors are Sandy Barnes, Ottawa; Mark Beyer, Wichtia; Chris Hedden, Lawrence; and Andrew Hahn, Hampton, VA.
For more information on the Real World Design Challenge or to get involved, contact Kansas’ RWDC Coordinator Sid Cooley by email at scooley@ksde.org or by phone at 785-296-3486. Information is also available online at www.realworlddesignchallenge.org.
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