| Prairie
students compete at TSA state convention
On March 13th -15th, 8 students attended the Idaho Technology Student Association Convention in Boise at Boise State University. Seven of the eight students received medals in the events they competed in against approximately 250 other students from across the state. Kyle Holthaus entered an old style pendulum clock made on the CNC machine and received first place in Manufacturing. Steve Baerlocher received second place in Manufacturing with his gun cabinet. Eric Daly received second place with his computer generated Safety Poster and third place with his Dragster Design(CO 2 car), Garrett Workman received third place in Endurance Flight with his rubber band plane, and Alex Richardson, Chance Ratcliff, Christa Wilson and Eric Daly received second place with their house they built with the laser in Architectural Model. Of the remaining students in the Dragster Design event, Randy Becker placed 5th, Steve Baerlocher placed 6th, Chance Ratcliff placed 9th, and Garrett Workman was eliminated in the second race of the top 16 finals. Kyle Holthaus’s car cracked at the CO2 housing after the preliminary run, disqualifying it from the field of 96 cars. Other students competing in the computer generated Safety Poster event were Steve Baerlocher, Randy Becker, Chance Ratcliff, and Christa Wilson. Garrett took an electronics test to qualify for the top 12 students to compete in the Electronic Demonstration event. After he qualified, he built an electronic kit. He made sure everything worked before he soldered it together, but unfortunately got too much solder on the board and the kit wouldn’t work. All the students competed in the Structural Engineering event (bridge building), and the Problem Solving event. The problem this year was to build a crane platform that would rest on water from materials given to lift the most weight. The students were excited with their results of the events and looking forward to competing next year in the Idaho Falls area. The campus at Boise State had very nice modern facilities for the students to compete in and when they weren’t competing they were invited to compete in activities at the recreation complex. It was a fun and exciting trip for all the young people. Those not graduating are already looking forward to competing next year around the Idaho Falls area. Roger Holthaus, Rick and Laurie Workman were very helpful throughout the convention with the students as Mr. Richardson had events he was in charge of running.. We can all be proud of the student’s accomplishments at the convention and their actions while attending.
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