36
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
SCIENCE FAIR: Event
touches full range
of fields of inquiry
Continued from page 1
hallways. The World of
Physics featured a ping pong
gun shooting ping pong balls
through a tube at high speed,
and Rijke’s tube that turned
heat into sound created by
a self-amplifying standing
wave.
Excited kids gathered
around a large course watch-
ing Spheros rolling in many
directions. Spheros are pro-
gramable robotic spheres
about the size of a navel
orange that you can drive
around. Spheros have been
adopted as a tool for teach-
ing kids about robotics and
computer programing in
over 1,000 schools across the
country.
Wes Estvold has been
a teacher at Sisters Middle
School for 20 years, and his
computer technology classes
are a favorite for many.
“I teach multiple classes,
and my maker class is about
hands-on building and con-
structing things,” Estvold
said. “I also teach a program-
ing class, and right now we
are programing Spheros to do
a specific task.”
Jon Renner was back with
his “backwards bike,” which
is a reverse-steering bicycle.
When you turn the handlebars
right the wheels go left. The
question is: How far can you
ride it? And the answer is: It’s
impossible to ride. Your brain
is fixed by what you know.
“I rebuilt the mechanism
with starter hardware so it’s
stronger. No one has managed
to ride it so far, and there’s
$100 for anyone that can. One
man tried riding it four times
and couldn’t do it so he gave
me $100 as a donation to the
science club,” Renner said.
The ISTARR group based
out of Sisters is an interna-
tional science technology
and research company that
specializes in near-space
stratospheric balloon launch
systems supporting primarily
polar research projects.
Sisters resident Steven
Peterzen, president of
ISTARR, had a table at the
fair full of information and
has a local office at Sisters
Eagle Airport.
“We launch these large
balloons that carry over 70
tons of instrumentation to
the stratosphere for research.
They go up to about 100,000
feet,” Peterzen said. “We
have a tracking system and
carry cameras. The balloons
circumnavigate the planet
and carry instruments to test
satellites.”
The Dead Programmers
Society showcased an original
computer game titled “Space
Race.”
The Dead Programmers
Society is a group of kids that
are involved in the Oregon
Game Project Challenge
(OGPC). It’s a statewide
competition that takes teams
from all over the state to one
place to show off their games
that they have created over a
period of months. It is meant
to promote a new generation
of coders and game designers.
A group of Sisters kids belong-
ing to the society meet once
weekly at Sisters City Hall.
School board member
Stephen King is the mas-
ter mentor for the Dead
Programmer’s Society.
These kids produce
a video game from
scratch. The future’s
in technology, and this
is giving them a life
skill and real-world
experience.
— Stephen King
“I’m the technical guy, the
kids pretty much teach them-
selves, we just facilitate the
project,” King said. “These
kids produce a video game
from scratch. The future’s in
technology, and this is giv-
ing them a life skill and real-
world experience.”
Black Butte School from
Camp Sherman also had a
table showcasing astronomy
projects.
“We had an astronomy
team this winter so the kids
made different displays on the
different elements of astron-
omy,” head teacher Delany
Sharp told The Nugget. “The
fourth- through eighth-graders
did a display on the expand-
ing universe theory and they
Out West Realty
— Serving all of Central Oregon —
John P. Pierce
541-549-9764
CCB# 159020 CCB# 16891
Arne J. P ierce
General Contracting LLC
541-647-0384
General Contracting LLC
541-668-0883
CCB# 190689
CCB# 208020
Serving the Sisters Area Since 1976
Strictly Quality
Principal Broker
ABR, CDPE,CIAS, GRI, SRES
541-480-0183
www.sandygoodsell.com
Licensed Broker in the State of Oregon
Selling Your Home
Call and schedule a home valuation TODAY!
“The heart and soul of any relationship is trust.
Our friendship with Ross began many years ago
when he was our personal trainer. We have observed
his wisdom and integrity both as a friend and when
he has assisted us as a real estate professional.”
— Bill and Zoe Willitts
Ross Kennedy, Principal Broker
Ro
Accr
Accredited
Luxury Home Specialist
Call 541-408-1343
www.myrksolutions.com
541-549-5555 Sisters
541-595-3838 The Ranch
made a demo of the solar
eclipse and a board of con-
stellations seen in March. The
younger students are involved
with building the mousetrap
cars.”
The Design, Construct,
Compete (DCC) contest is
always a highlight of the fair
and they were back again
with a competition of hand-
designed mousetrap cars cre-
ated by elementary students
navigating around barriers,
going the distance. And DCC
for middle and high school
students featured catapult
:
CUSTOM HOMES • RESIDENTIAL BUILDING PROJECTS
Becke W. P ierce
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
Kaylee vuber and Sydney vead set up a stain slide for visitors to view.
competition where partici-
pants built a device from plas-
tic, wood, or steel capable of
propelling tennis balls across
the room and into a hoop.
The DCC contest was held in
the gym, conducted by Rob
Corrigan. Winners of the cat-
apult competition were David
Novotny and Asher Bachtold,
and second place went to
Megan Greaney and Molly
Winter.
Kids gathered around the
high school flight simulator
See SCIENCE FAIR on page 37
DON’T
MISS
OUT
onjthisjweek’sjinsertsjinjthejNugget:
RAY’S FOOD PLACE:jApple Ramajisj
back!jJonagold, Cameo, Braeburn,
Gala, Granny Smith & Fuji Apples arej
nowjpricedjatjjustj$1.29jperjpound!
BI-MART: Yay,jit’sjoffi
jjciallyjspring!j
Bi-Martjisjnowjoffjeringjajbeautifulj
Bandon 5-piece Patio Dining Setjatjaj
$50jsavingsj(25%joffj),jnowj$149.97!