Straw Tower Competition for Physics Students

(The photo at the top is the Buchtel CLC Straw Competiton team.)

Certificates were handed out this week to the winners of the straw tower competition for APS physics students across the district. There were 79 entries representing 158 students.

The towers had to be constructed using the same materials provided by the teachers: 50 drinking straws, one meter of masking tape, scissors, ruler and one standard tennis ball.

No other materials or forms of fastening devices (such as glue) could be used. The straws could be cut or slit or bent and could not be attached to the table.

“The rules of the competition were created by the physics teachers. Students eligible to enter the competition were in the 11th- and 12th-grade physics and AP physics classes,” said Dr. Katrina Halasa, supervisor of K-12 health and science, who oversees the project. “The goal was to design and construct the tallest straw tower that could balance a tennis ball (for at least 10 seconds) on top of the structure. This assessment is designed to give students a better understanding of the forces on structures in real life.” 

There were individual and team winners.

The top three winners district-wide, were:

• First Place, Individual Project - Jordan Vue of Ellet CLC - 123.5 inches tall
• Second Place, Team Project - Daniel Hyler, Chadwick Lucas and Henry Grattan of Firestone CLC - 117.5 inches tall
• Third Place, Team Project - Luke Day and Willem Bloss - STEM High School - 117 inches tall 

The district winners also received medals: first place, $30 Amazon gift certificate; second place, $25 Amazon gift certificate; and third place, $20 Target gift certificate.

APS has been holding the straw competition for 13 years.

In addition, the high schools with the top winners were gifted with a $10 Chick-fil-A gift certificate and first-place medal: 

• Ellet CLC, Individual Project - Jordan Vue (Ranking 1)
• Firestone CLC, Team Project - Daniel Hyler, Chadwick Lucas and Henry Grattan (Ranking 2)
• STEM High School, Team Project - Luke Day and Willem Bloss (Ranking 3)
• North High School, Team Project - Vaskar Suba, Tao Tak Non and Avinash Mongar - First Place (Ranking 16 - 64 inches tall).
• Buchtel CLC, Team Project - Jaylen James and Mahogany Jones - First Place (Ranking 32 - 36 inches tall)

Ellet physics teacher John Guidubaldi said the students designed the straw tower ahead of time; then, during the competition, they could change the design if they saw something wasn’t working. 

“We were not allowed to give any hands-on support but could make suggestions in the form of questions to get them thinking about other possibilities to resolve a problem,” he said. “The students had 45 minutes to construct their tower, then 45 minutes to test and evaluate the project, describing what they would do differently to improve it in the future.”

Guidubaldi has been teaching physics for about nine years. He said his students enjoy the science projects and are looking forward to the APS STEM EXPO at Ellet CLC on January 25. This will be the Akron school district’s 69th Science EXPO, which will be open to elementary, middle school and high school students to participate.

STEM High School Straw Competition Team

North High School Straw Competition Team