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FOREST LEAVES — May 4, 2005

Roosevelt's science team top in region

BY CHRIS LAFORTUNE

STAFF WRITER

For the third year in a row, a team of students from Roosevelt Middle School will compete in the National Middle School Science Bowl in Colorado this June.

The team of three eighth grade students and one seventh grader qualified for the national competition by finishing first in the Chicago Middle School Science Bowl held in Burr Ridge Saturday.

Students will travel to the School of Mines in Golden, Colo., for the national competition, humanities and math teacher Sandra Painter said Monday. The competition is scheduled for June 23 to 26.

As part of Saturday's contest, students designed a model car that runs off a hydrogen fuel cell and took third place in a double-elimination race tournament, Painter said.

The Science Bowl also included an academic competition in which the Roosevelt team finished first, giving it first place overall. Teams must participate in the fuel cell competition in order to go to nationals.

First place in the model car race was Jerling Junior High in Orland Park, while second place went to St. John's Lutheran School in LaGrange. Cars were no larger than 12-by-24 inches, and each team started with a kit that included an electrical motor powered by a solar panel or fuel cell.

Students then designed their car using whatever materials they wanted.

The team is now designing a new car for the national competition, eighth grade student Jeffrey Narkis said.

"We're using the idea from the team that won the race this year," Narkis said. "Their car weighed much less than ours, so we're going to try and take their ideas."

Last year's competition amazed Narkis, he said. It was cool to stay on a college campus and fun meeting the other teams.

"After last year, we realized that we are against a whole bunch of very good teams," Narkis said. "We just hope we do well. If it's first place, great, if it's not, it's still great because we're going to nationals."

The first year Roosevelt competed at nationals, it finished second in the academic competition, Painter said. Last year, it took second in the car race and fifth in the academic competition.

"It's a pretty cool thing," Painter said. "They get to stay on a college campus and the Department of Energy pays for everything."

Other event sponsors include Argonne National Lab, General Motors and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Chris LaFortune can be reached at clafortune@pioneerlocal.com.