The first event was the Egg drop. Most of the other teams clearly had practice or previous experience with many of the contraptions sharing a common trait: wings to slow the decent. Alex, along with his partner, Seth, opted to try cushioning their egg: They cut their provided drinking straws into small pieces and filled the bottom of the cup with the pieces. Unfortunately for our guys, their idea didn't work and their egg took a 5 meter trip straight to oblivion. Better luck next year guys...
Next up: Paper Rockets. Alex and his partner, Alex, worked very well on this one: One built the body and the other the wings. With that done quickly, they made some test flights and all looked good. The competition was fierce with the first team landing one of two attempts inches from the target. But Alex and Alex landed both of their launches, not amazingly close, but not erroneously far, either. In the end, Team RLCA brought home a Silver medal.
The next competition was Food Webs. This was a solo event in which Alex was given a series of plants and animals and had to outline who ate what (or whom). This event was closed to spectators, but it took place it what appeared to be a small science lecture hall.The final event was Measurement. This was a grueling full 1-hour solo event and involved each of the children spending a set period of time at a station with a particular task. Alex crammed for this event the night before; learning about volt meters, Ph paper, volume, circumference, etc. Despite Alex's lack of experience with a triple-beam balance, the cram session paid off with Alex bringing home the Gold.
