Members of the fifth grade Advanced Learner Program at J.R.
Simplot Elementary recently displayed their engineering abilities at
the Idaho Tech Mars Rover Challenge held in Pocatello at the Idaho
State University Campus on Saturday, April 10.
The team members included Ali Clinger, Austin Teichert, and
Beau Lusk. Their teacher, Kristen Jensen, was excited to give them
the news that they won first place overall. The Covid Warriors from
Rigby placed second, and the Lego Nerds from Twin Falls placed
third in the competition.
The JRSE students spent many hours designing the rover and
put in extra time to make sure all aspects of their team submission
were the best. Teams from schools across Southeast Idaho competed
for awards ranging from the best rock collection device to the best
poster display.
The J.R. Simplot Elementary School Space Jam team also came
in first in several individual events at the competition. They won
first for the best Engineering Lab Notebook which consisted of the
engineering design process with detailed notes, drawings, pie charts,
and photographs of the student’s work. They scored 20/20 possible
points in that category.
The team also won first place in the poster display competition,
earning a score of 9/10 possible points. They also came in first for the PowerPoint Presentation scoring 15/15. The team created a mars rover that could compete in the hill climb event, blind driving competition and speed competition. Other events the team competed in included the rock collection competition, in which rocks are collected using a specially designed rock collection device. The Mars Rover program is sponsored in partnership with NASA, Idaho State University, and the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. “Coaching the Space Jam team was a great experience, as the students were very engaged in the project and worked well together as a team. This is my 17th year of involvement with this competition, and I’m always excited to see the growth each student has,” Kristin Jensen said.
Article and photo courtesy of the Power County Press