J. Staas Haught

@thegoalienet

GLASSBORO - Launching an egg several hundred feet in the air is no easy feat. Bringing it back to the ground intact presents a whole new set of engineering challenges.

On Saturday, teams of middle and high school students from across the Delaware Valley found out just how difficult — and fun — it really is.

"It really challenges you to understand problem solving and to work things out," said Seneca High School junior Kevin Golden.

LIFTOFF: South Jersey middle schoolers are rocket scientists

Blast Off challenged student teams to design and build model rockets that could carry a single raw egg to 800 feet and back down unharmed, with a launch-to-landing time of just 45 seconds. The rockets had to meet strict design rules too, measuring at least 25.6 inches in height, but weighing no more than 650 grams (just shy of 23 ounces, for those still grappling with the metric system.)

The competition, at Rowan University's South Jersey Technology Park, was coordinated and organized by the Rowan chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Seven teams accepted the challenge, spending the past several weeks designing, building and testing their rockets ahead of the competitive fly-off.

Soaring Six, a middle school team from Our Lady of Calvary in Philadelphia captured the prize, nailing an altitude of 792 feet.

Team captain Korianna Rosenthal, said the competition forced her team to work together to meet their goals.

"The ups and downs of getting it all to work really made us appreciate the team and the hard work," Rosenthal said.

Rowan mechanical engineering major Jessica Snyder coordinated the event as a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) outreach event.

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"I'm so proud of all the hard work these kids have done," Snyder said. "This whole day just goes to show how much interest in STEM there is out there in the future generations."

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The contest includes eight teams, Snyder explained, with more than 70 students on teams from middle and high schools in South Jersey and the Philadelphia region. Volunteers from area rocket clubs, South Jersey Area Rocketry Society and the Bridgeton Area Rocket Club as well as the Southern New Jersey American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Professional Section judged the competition and served as technical advisers.

"None of us really had any experience with building rockets," said Kelli Hughes, an eighth-grader from Holy Trinity Regional School in Deptford. "But, we learned how to accept a challenge and work on it."

The day also included presentations by engineering students, such as designing, building and flying RC aircraft, fighting sumo robots and a mini Baja car.

J Staas-Haught: (856) 486-2401; jhaught@gannettnj.com