Learning in motion at Capital City Pumpkin Drop

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Nicholas Evans of Clay County Middle School squinted into the cloudy skies over Charleston’s Appalachian Power Park to get a peak at his class’ design at the 18th annual pumpkin drop at Appalachian Power Park.   Seconds later the bamboo super structure he hoped would absorb the shock of a 20 foot free fall crunched on impact and caused the pumpkin to split.  A design failure.

“It was still pretty cool though!” He laughed.

Evans and his classmates joined nearly 1,200 students from 20 West Virginia counties in an effort to design a contraption which would protect a pumpkin from the impact of such a fall.

“We built a square pyramid out of bamboo and wrapped up the pumpkin in bubble wrap and put rubber bands around the bamboo.  The bamboo was supposed to drop on the point so the force wouldn’t go through the pumpkin, but through the bamboo,” he explained. “It looked like all of the weight had moved to one side and instead of landing on the tip, it landed on its side.”

The thinking is exactly what organizers of the event at Bridge Valley Community and Technical College hoped would be spawned by the competition.

“There’s a lot of different ideas and concepts we want them to get from this other than putting stuff in a box and hoping for the best,” said Melissa Thompson, Associate Professor at Bridge Valley. “Just thinking out of the box.  Some of these designs are very creative and unique.  There’s a lot of physics properties we’re stretching their minds with, especially the little kids.”

A crew of guys at Nitro Elementary explained how they wrapped their box with pillows and bubble wrap.

“It didn’t work out, she died,”  laughed one member of the design team.

Logan Middle School fielded three teams for the event.   The 5th-6th graders had the most successful design using pop cans as their shock absorbent.  The 7th grade and 8th grade teams chose pool noodles and microfiber which didn’t work out nearly as well.  Either way, it was fun learning.

“They’ve really enjoyed it,” said Krystal Reagan, 8th grade science teacher at Logan Middle. “We’ve been working on it for over a month.”

The winners for this year’s Pumpkin Drop include:

· Most Sustainable: Clay High School

· Most Creative Design: George Washington High School

·Team Spirit: West Chapmanville Elementary

· Elementary Division
o 3rd Place: Ansted Elementary
o 2nd Place: Justice Elementary
o 1st Place: New River Elementary

· Middle School
o 3rd Place: East Fairmont Middle School
o 2nd Place: Ripley Middle School
o 1st Place: Walton Middle School

· High School
o 3rd Place: George Washington High School
o 2nd Place: Greenbrier East High School
o 1st Place: Huntington High School

· Poster Contest Winner
o John Adams Middle School

· Overall Pumpkin Drop Champion
o Clay County High School





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