Building a Better Mousetrap (Vehicle, That Is)

Instead of MPG, it’s MPV: Mousetrap Powered Vehicle. On March 11, an estimated 130 seventh- and eighth-grade students from Spokane Public Schools’ MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) classes will gather at the East Central Community Center to test their skills through engineering events and logic games.

Teams design, build and test catapults in an on-site competition, launching marshmallows in a design test for distance. In a timed/measured event, mousetrap powered vehicles will race for the finish line in tests for speed and power, and work to climb ramps.

Last year’s Spokane MESA team took second in the 2004 MESA USA National Engineering Design Competition in Albuquerque, N.M.

Schedule:

9:45-11:15 a.m.

Build catapults

Mousetrap cars climb ramps in the morning

11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.:

Mousetrap cars compete for speed on the floor

Test catapults

1:30 p.m.:

Presentation of awards (medals, ribbons)