Engineering competitions?

[TravelingChris]

Okay I have heard about science fairs, math competitions, Latin exams, speech and debate tournaments and speech contests, but other than Odyssey of the Mind, what other engineering competitions are there?

[MSNative]

We participated in a bridge building competition at Fernbank in Atl. There may be something like that near you.

http://chapters.sme.org/061/bridge.htm

 

Other than that, we do FLL robotics.

 

Looking forward to reading other responses.

[Alenee]

Check out http://www.soinc.org

 

This is the National Science Olympiad website. There may be a homeschool group near you that competes. Our group is leaving tomorrow for the WA State competition where we hope to hold on to our #1 spot and head to Nationals next month!

 

In a nutshell, teams from different schools compete in 23 science events including building/engineering events. A homeschool group must be affiliated with some other academic organization to compete. Ours is under our Co-op. However as homeschooled students, we are not allowed to take more than 2 outside classes (ps classes). In that case we would not qualify as homeschoolers, nor would we qualify as public schoolers. It's basically all or nothing.

 

PM me if you want more info.

[Laurie4b]

Okay I have heard about science fairs, math competitions, Latin exams, speech and debate tournaments and speech contests, but other than Odyssey of the Mind, what other engineering competitions are there?

 

Odyssey of the Mind incorporates engineering but is a creative thinking competition that involves all kinds of minds: engineering, drama, art, sometimes music, writing, etc. Two of our kids compete and it's great.

 

Have you looked into robotics competitions? Those typically involve mostly engineering minds.

[TechWife]

Check out FIRST. They have FIRST LEGO League (FLL) for upper elementary and middle school students and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)for high school students.

[TravelingChris]

Yes, she was in OM this year but she and one other girl were the only ones interested in engineering. They compromised and did a part engineering/part drama project and they won the spontaneous problem in the age group with a mechanical problem. The only thing is next year I think she has to go up in a group and the older group is full already and doing great (going to int comp) by doing drama. DD is very social and somewhat influenced by others. While I am still very open to OM, I am looking for other things so I have options if that turns out to be out like I think it might.

 

The bridge building is right up her alley. That was her spontaneous problem at OM and they got everything on the bridge. I will have to look for that locally.

 

Robotics might be an option too if I can find an open group. She is doing that in co-op now and likes it but wishes she had a more serious partner.

 

I have been explaining to her that probably she needs to be making friends with boys since there aren't many girls who are interested in what she is. SHe is starting to realize that since she is getting very frustrated over and over again with the girls she is friends with. I am not telling her to stop having them as friends but to expand her friendships to include some boys who are interested in the same things she is.

[Caroline]

Trig-Star is a high school math competition put on by a surveyors association. I have seen some sample questions, and they are civil engineering type trig questions.

[In The Great White North]

http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/

 

The West Point Bridge Design contest. We never entered but dc liked playing with it.

[Dmmetler]

JETS-Junior Engineering Technical Society. I'm not sure whether HS groups can form chapters or whether you'd have to find a school to let you join, though.

 

 

[Beth S]

Science Bowl, by fielding a team of homeschoolers, which compete against other local high schools.