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Mars contest draws stellar students

By Portia-Elaine Gant
Senior Staff Writer

Some of Houston's most talented students attempted to answer science's oldest questions about space Saturday during the Mars Rover Model Competition, held in the College of Architecture atrium.

The competition, created when the World Space Congress held its conference in Houston in 2002, attracted 13 schools for the citywide finals of its second annual contest. The students were given design guidelines for Mars rover models and had to work within a $25 spending limit.

Contest Chairman Edgar Bering said that, in addition to providing a cost-efficient educational activity, the contest was meant to attract students and parents to the University and help spark interest in engineering among young people.

"Right now in the U.S., 6 percent of its graduating class is engineers. In China, it's 60 percent," said Bering, a professor of physics and electrical and computer engineering at UH. "If we don't do something about that, we're not going to be the world power we are for more than another generation."

The project has already sparked the interest of two winners from Fort Settlement Middle School in Sugar Land. Seventh graders Justin Banerd and Vanya Eaeyeyehev, who want to study engineering and space, took home the first-place prize in the middle school solar power division.

Their rover was the only model to receive a perfect score of 100 in the competition.

"The name of our rover was 'Amerus 5167,'" Banerd said. "'Amer' stands for America and 'rus' stands for Russia, because I'm American and Vanya is Russian. The number 5167 is Mars in numerical language."

Their model, which science teacher Karen Staley said they began in August, included three solar panels and a moving drill both boys credited with earning first place.

"The drill made us suffer a lot at the beginning. It was moving without any control. Then we had the idea of putting a magnet behind it, and that made it move smoothly," Eaeyeyehev said. "We had a problem, but we worked hard to solve it as a team."

Some schools only brought students in magnet programs, but Sheldon Intermediate Science Department head Stephanie Nathan and fifth grade science teacher Chad Gogan said they believed all their students could benefit from the project.

"We think that hands-on activities like this are the best way to get the kids not only learning, but understanding how these things work," Gogan said.

That mindset made the event more educational than competitive for many students.

"My teacher told us that the most important thing is to learn and have fun. That way no one can lose," Westwood Elementary third grader Nathan Hobby said. "We all learned a lot doing our projects, so we're all winners."
 

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