Eggs drop, robots battle, kids learn

Eggs plummeted out of the sky Friday at Lagoon and landed whole on a bulls-eye target or smashed on the ground with a resounding crack.

Middle and high school students came from Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Idaho to drop the eggs — protected in cardboard, Styrofoam, straws and peanut butter — from the Sky Ride during Utah State University's annual Physics Day.

The daylong event brought more than 6,000 students to compete in robotics, a physics-bowl tournament and roller-coaster designs, competitions that USU physics professor and event organizer J.R. Dennison said motivates students to major in science and math, and consider technology-oriented careers.

"Even if we have only a few hundred students stop and talk to representatives from Boeing or ATK, that's a positive thing," said Dennison, who co-organized the event with Idaho National Laboratories. "The state has been putting a lot of money into encouraging student interest in science, and that's what we're doing here."

And with multiple sponsors, including Wal-Mart, Boeing Co., Lagoon and ATK, USU managed to keep costs for the entire event down to $4,000, Dennison said.

Richard Anderson, assistant regional director of First, an engineering company in the northwest U.S., said competitions that capture students' interest and require them to design and engineer a robot in just six weeks, as one event did, are inspiring students to consider a career in science. The First company sponsored a high-school tournament in which teams created robots to scoop up and throw plastic and cloth balls into each team's basket.

"Its really fun to see a creation you've dreamed up come to life," said Tayson Holzer, a junior at Woods Cross High. "All of us are planning to go into engineering and robotics. We're learning things that we'll be using for the rest of our careers."

Other students answered questions rapid-fire with their fingers on a buzzer as judges rattled off queries about the speed of light and charged ions.

"These questions are not easy," Dennison said. "Graduate students helping out will walk away from the physics bowl saying, 'We don't know the answers to this.' These are the best students in the state."

Ryan Carlsen, a senior at Riverton High who was on the team that won full-tuition scholarships to USU, said the questions were difficult, but he and his teammates began to recognize certain types of problems they had practiced for the Advanced Placement physics exam that offers college credit to high school students.

And while park visitors rode roller coasters for afternoon enjoyment, physics students climbed aboard the Colossus to test home-built accelerometers to judge the maximum G-force.

The competitions ended with award announcements and more than $8,000 in prizes.

"The purpose is to make science fun and enjoyable," said Ali Siahpush, a senior mechanical engineer at Idaho National Laboratories. "With science comes technology. And technology improves our economy."

E-MAIL: lgroves@desnews.com