TSA Regionals

On Saturday, January ninth, the Brier Terrace Technology Student Association (TSA) competed against several other middle schools in the Brier Terrace Middle School TSA Regional Competition. There were several events including Structural Engineering, Junior Solar Sprint, and Problem Solving.

In Structural Engineering, contestants built a bridge designed to have the greatest efficiency possible. Efficiency is how many times the structure held its own weight, and is calculated by multiplying how much the structure held in grams and the number of grams in a pound (which is 454), and then dividing that number by the weight of the bridge in grams. Alderwood Middle School’s TSA swept the event, winning third through first place, and while having their first place structure have an efficiency of greater than two thousand.

Junior Solar Sprint is an event where teams of two contestants build a solar car out of balsa wood and then race the cars along a track. The cars are connected to the track by wire that is connected to the car using eye hooks to make sure none of the cars are damaged in the race by deviating from the course. Brier Terrace took third and first place in this event, with Meghan Park and Kaley Giboney tied with Aidan Alderson and Evan Jones for third place, and Spencer Mudaliar and Matthew Pullom taking first place.

Problem Solving is an event that has contestants team up in pairs and attempt to solve some sort of problem. The specific problem for this competition was spaghetti towers, where contestants had to build some sort of structure that was about a foot in height that could balance a board holding two cups at the very top, and those cups would have to hold as many marbles as they could before the structure collapsed. Brier Terrace took second place, with Giang Ho and Pilsung Kwak building a structure that could hold a total 82 marbles.

#nolandegarlais #tsa