[StephLee]

My team(1629) is working on plans to hold an engineering challenge in the two high schools that make up our team, the only two in our county. We're going to talk to the Board of Ed on Tuesday to see if they're interested, but we already have two of the three tech ed teachers on board since they're both mentors. Here are the tentative rules for the challenge.

The device built by students must launch or otherwise move an egg (or egg-shaped object that weighs the same) to several targets laying on the ground at 25 feet, 50 feet, and 100 feet away. The bull's-eye of the 25-foot target is worth 5 points, the 50-foot target worth 10, and the 100-foot target is worth 15 points. Each target will be ten feet in diameter or a little less. If the egg is not broken when it comes to a stop, a bonus of 10 points (or more, we're not sure yet) will be awarded. Each egg launcher or mover must not weigh more than 50 pounds with the egg protection device on it. It must be powered by stored potential energy and cannot be physically thrown or pushed by humans. Each team will get two rounds of ten tries during competition and the total score will be the combined scores of both those rounds. The launcher or pusher must be built in a set number of weeks(we're thinking 4) and then we'll hold a competition at each school. The 4 teams at each school who win awards will go to the final, county-wide competition. Teams should consist of no more than 5 members. The awards for each competition will be: winner, runner-up, most innovative design, and the KIS award(Keep It Simple), for the device that works well with a simple design.

Most of this is subject to change as we go along. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.