AMA News District XI - 2009/06
About Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad (SO) is an international nonprofit organization devoted to improving the quality of science education, creating a passion for learning science, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers.
These goals are accomplished through classroom activities, research, professional development workshops, and the encouragement of intramural, district, regional, state, national, and international tournaments. In Washington State alone, roughly 100 middle and high schools and approximately 2,000 students are involved, sponsored and aided by nearly 1,000 volunteers.
The Wright Stuff
One of the SO events is "The Wright Stuff." Students construct and fly rubber-powered indoor free-flight models, competing for longest flight time following a strict set of rules. Teams will construct and test up to two rubber-powered monoplanes to achieve maximum flight times. Prior to the tournament, teams will construct and test up to two rubber-motor-powered, propeller-driven airplanes. They may be constructed from published plans, commercial kits, and/or a student's design.
All airplanes must meet the following specifications:
Airplane Specifications
- Construction materials
- Airplanes must be constructed only from wood, paper, plastic film covering, and glue except for the propeller assemblies and motor hooks.
- Airplanes may not use solid balsa wings or tail assemblies.
- Major components (wing assembly, tail assembly, propeller assembly, and motor stick) may be attached to each other using thread, music wire, malleable wire, paper or plastic tubes, and/or rubber bands.
- Kits may be used; however, they may not contain any pre-glued joints or pre-covered surfaces.
- Motor attachment and ballast
- Plastic or rubber o-rings may be used to attach the motor to the airplane and propeller drive.
- Any dense material may be used for ballast.
- Mass
- Total mass of the airplane throughout the flight, excluding the rubber motor, must be 7.0 grams or more.
- Geometry limits
- The airplane must be a monoplane (one wing) not exceeding a maximum horizontally projected wingspan of 40.0 cm.
- There is no maximum wing chord (the straight-line distance from the leading edge of the wing to the trailing edge, parallel to the fuselage) except for bonus application (see Bonus Points).
- The maximum horizontally projected stabilizer span is 20.0 cm, and the maximum stabilizer chord (straight-line distance from leading edge to trailing edge) is 6.0 cm.
- Propeller assembly
- Propeller assemblies may be built by the competitor(s) or purchased preassembled and may include a propeller, a shaft, a hanger, washers, and/or a thrust bearing.
- The propeller must be a single two-bladed, commercially made plastic propeller with a maximum diameter of 20.0 cm. Any propellers may be trimmed to meet this specification.
- Any trimming/shaving/twisting/adjusting of propellers is permitted to balance, reduce mass, or change pitch before any flight.
- Rubber motors
- Rubber motor(s) not exceeding a mass of 1.5 grams (including any attachments such as o-rings) must power the airplanes and will be massed separately from the airplane.
- Motors may be lubricated before and/or after check-in.
- Officials will retain only motors qualified during a team's inspection and they will be available to the team only for official flights.
- Identification
- Each airplane must be labeled so the event supervisor can easily identify to which team it belongs.
Competition Venue and Conduct
- The event must be held indoors. The room dimensions (approximate length, width, and ceiling height) should be made available to teams in advance of the competition.
- Directors and supervisors are urged to minimize the effects of environmental factors such as air currents (e.g., doors, fans).
- After teams enter the cordoned-off competition area to trim, practice, or compete, team members may not receive outside assistance, materials, or communication.
- A separate area will be designated for spectators.
Flight Logs and Practice
- Each team must present a flight log of recorded data during inspection.
- Data must include at least six parameters for at least 10 test flights prior to the competition.
- Three required parameters to be recorded are:
- Motor size before windup
- Number of turns on the motor at launch
- Flight time
- The team must choose at least three additional data parameters beyond those required.
- Practice flights may occur throughout the event but will yield to any official flight.
- No trim or practice flights will be permitted in the last half-hour of the event.
Inspection and Official Flights
- A self-check inspection station may be made available to competitors for checking their airplanes prior to being checked by the judges.
- The use of any type of winder is permitted.
- Inspection for each team will take place immediately prior to that team's two official flights.
- Teams may make up to a total of two official flights using one or two airplanes.
- Teams will be given an eight-minute "flight period," starting when their first official flight begins, to launch their official flights.
- Any flight beginning within the eight-minute period will be permitted to fly to completion.
- Participants may make adjustments, repairs, or trim flights during their official eight-minute period.
Scoring and Tiebreakers
- The winner is the team with the longest flight time for either flight.
- Ties will be broken by the longest time of the other flight.
Bonus Points
- Bonus points are available at the state level if the airplane's wing chord (measured from leading edge to trailing edge) measures less than 6.5 cm.
- Bonus points are available at the national level if the airplane wing's chord measures less than 5.5 cm.
Penalties
- Teams that violate a "construction" or "competition" rule that does not have a specific penalty will be ranked after all teams that do not violate those rules.
National Science Education Standard
Content Standard E: All students should develop abilities of technological design and understandings about science and technology.
Acknowledgments
The Wright Stuff event is sponsored in part by the AMA. Thanks to Claude Tanner, Idaho associate vice president, for submitting this information.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
