JPL\u2019s Paul MacNeal started the Invention Challenge so that students could experience the fun of hands-on engineering and of STEM learning while developing team-building skills.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
And in this competition, fast. Every team that completed the task did so in under five seconds.<\/p>\n
Team Pink, the winning student team from Oakwood High School in North Hollywood, California, sank its paper ball in the basket in just 1.25 seconds, using a launcher at the start to knock over a series of five dominoes. The last domino hit a switch that turned on a conveyor belt to push the paper ball into the basket.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little nervous at the beginning,\u201d said Team Pink member and Oakwood High senior Midori Bonner. \u201cThere are a lot of good teams that were going really fast, but we\u2019ve been training so hard for almost four months, I had faith in our team and the work we had put in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team Roman Bridge from Los Angeles Senior High School and Team Green from Oakwood High School took second and third place, respectively.<\/p>\n
Eighteen of the student teams competing in Friday\u2019s finals had survived two regional events in November involving 40 school teams from Los Angeles and Orange counties. Four JPL-sponsored teams of professional engineers separately battled it out.<\/p>\n
Having professional engineers compete is part of MacNeal\u2019s larger goal of inspiring students: He started the free competition so that they could experience the fun of hands-on engineering and of STEM learning while developing team-building skills along the way. He provides participants with nothing but the rules; teams have to figure out the rest themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if they don\u2019t do well, they worked hard to get where they were,\u201d MacNeal said. \u201cIt\u2019s just satisfying to see all the inventions they come up with.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Oakwood](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/1-invention-winners-d2023-1208-rl-med7744.jpg\")
<\/figure>![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2-invention-d2023-1208-rl-med7494.jpg\")
<\/figure>