This last Saturday the class finally went to Augustus Hawkins High School for the regional competition of the JPL invention challenge. My team and I were pretty nervous since we only got our device working successfully the day before. When we got there in the morning and unloaded our device from Ms. Snyder's husband's truck we immediately began tightening every bolt, ensuring that nothing would fall apart or malfunction when we were in front of the judges. After running 3 tests, we began to feel more at ease as the device was still looking good. We were the 19th entry in the contest so didn't have too much down time, but we did take a look at the other projects from other schools and the tables of the engineering sponsors as we walked around.
When it was time to carry our devices to the stage we did so pretty quickly without dropping anything or running into people, and then we simply waited as other groups failed and succeeded before us. Then the announcer called our group and we had 3 minutes to set up in the square they drew on the ground for us with the platform perfectly in the center. Jordan gave a quick description of our device and then in less than 3 seconds we were all screaming as the judge cleared us with the fastest time so far. One thing that our group did way better than all the others was supporting our teammates and the other group as well. We were definitely the team with the most energy and the loudest cheers. One thing that we could have done better was maybe talk to some other groups a little but more just to show our interest and show some good sportsmanship.
