Dawson Enriched Science students Liam Ali-Tse, Veronica Chneerov, and George Alshami say they "learned countless things that a classroom environment cannot teach" by participating in Science, on tourne!, a unique intercollegiate science and technology competition held annually in Quebec. They also won the environmental responsibility award, which was $1,000, and did very well overall.
"Physics in reality is different than what we see on paper," they said in a team interview about the competition. "There are often many more factors and variables in a real scenario than one may expect. In addition, we learnt the importance of thorough planning."
At this year's competition in Quebec City over the first weekend of May, the challenge was to create a machine that can use wind energy to travel over the largest distance possible before touching the ground. The challenge has certain parameters, such as the maximum mass of the machine, the maximum height, and the allowed sources of energy used.
"Our team, the Barbie Air Brigade, created a machine that maximizes the mass used while also scoring a significant distance," said the team members, who have been friends since the beginning of CEGEP. "The total points scored are calculated based on the mass and the distance traveled by the machine (without touching the ground), and our machine was able to score around 2,680 points, which is in the top three scores among all other participating CEGEPs."
The team explained their main challenge: "Since the idea for our machine relied on a very heavy mass rolling down a bridge-like structure, we were struggling with bringing down the total mass of the machine to below the maximum without risking the rigidity of the structure. When we built the first prototype, the total mass was already at 5 kg (the maximum allowed weight being 4.5 kg), while the total distance traveled was only 30 cm.
"After a lot of work and improvement, we were able to bring the weight down to 4.495 kg, while also increasing the distance it travels to almost 60 cm! That is double the distance which the machine was capable of achieving beforehand. Thus, we were able to overcome it with a lot of trial and error and testing, as well as the valuable advice and ideas given to us by Dawson's wonderful Physics teachers and laboratory technicians."
Enriched Science co-coordinator and Physics teacher Chris Whittaker said: "They had the second highest score in the preliminary round but didn't complete their run in the finals. (They took risks to try and catch the top team - and it didn't work out). Their preliminary round score was only beaten by the winning team (out of 24 teams)!"
A big factor in receiving the award was that students used materials from the reusable aluminum kits that were purchased with funds provided by the Dawson College Foundation. Their project was made of 100% reusable materials and used a minimal number of materials to get a maximal result.
The team said: "Winning this award would not have been possible without the equipment and tools that Dawson College provided. Thus, we would like to thank Dawson for its continued support to its students in such projects. We would also like to give the credit of this award to Dawson's incredible and indispensable physics teachers who give us and all Dawson students the chance to participate in Science, on tourne! A special thanks goes to Professor Chris Whittaker for being the backbone of this opportunity and for his unceasing support and dedication to enriching the student experience at Dawson College."
The three team members have appreciated their experience in Science at Dawson: "This competition has allowed us to have a greater appreciation for the resources the science program and Dawson College offers its students. Not many teams from other CEGEPs had access to as many resources as we had, such as 3D-printers, kits, laboratory equipment and space for working on the project. As well, since the three of us are enrolled in Dawson's Enriched Science program, we all agree that choosing Enriched Science was a great decision as it offered us many opportunities, a strong sense of community, and a lot of support from faculty, staff and peers."
