Latino Club students win engineering contest

Bonneville Power Administration Science Bowl entries from Walla Walla 2015 are SciClips Winners and take Engineering Contest.

Nine Walla Walla High School students representing Exploring Post 311 competed with students from 70 high school teams from around the region in the 24th annual Bonneville Power Administration Regional Science Bowl on Saturday, February 7 in Portland, Oregon.  The students attending the event were Andy Flores, Erika Ibarra Perez, Jazmin Duran, Zoe Hernandez, Emely Olivos, Arthur Lopez, Clarissa Cortez, Yaritza Garcia, and Christian Moreno

The Science Bowl is a quiz-style question-and-answer competition that challenges students on math and science concepts.  The Bonneville Power Regional Science Bowl event is the largest event of its kind in the United States.

For the second year in a row, BPA invited Science Bowl teams to produce 90 second videos that showcase their science acumen and creativity. Winning teams included an entry from Exploring Post 311 which is sponsored by the College Place Presbyterian Men’s Breakfast group.  The video featured Science Bowl team members Flores, Ibarra Perez, Duran, Olivos, Hernandez, Lopez, and Moreno.

The SciClips video contest was sponsored by Google. Winning teams received a $200 gift certificate for their sponsoring school’s science program.

A sub team of Walla Walla students won the Engineering Contest during the afternoon portion of the event which was sponsored by Vemier.  The contest required them to design and build an airplane out of styrofoam, rubber bands, balsa wood, and a propeller.  After testing the plane, contestants made modifications and then competed in a contest that required the plane to fly for accuracy trying to land on a mock aircraft carrier, flying for distance, and flying for time in the air.  The winners of the competition were Walla Walla team members Ibarra-Perez, Cortez, Hernandez, and Moreno.

The weekend competition marked the 12th year a team from Exploring Post 311 has competed in this event with support from Pacific Power, College Place Presbyterian Church, and Exploring Post 311. Exploring Post 311 is a Learning for Life program, a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America.

Photo: L to R

Front: Zoe Hernandez

First Row: Jazmin Duran, Arthur Lopez, Clarissa Cortez, Diana Erickson Coach

Second Row: Christian Moreno, Andy Flores, Yaritza Garcia, Erika Ibarra Perez, Emely Olivos