Western North Carolina Gravity Games Soapbox Races Showcase Engineering, Science

Donning jackets, hoodies and gloves, more than 200 hundred spectators lined Church Street in downtown Lenoir, N.C., to support competitors in the first-ever Western North Carolina Gravity Games Soapbox Races on Saturday, Nov. 19. Google and Appalachian State University (ASU) co-hosted the event.

The event was a success! So much so that we're gearing up to do it again in April 2012.

Thirty-four teams - nine high school, 23 middle school, and two in the open division for university or corporate entries - from Alleghany, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba and Watauga counties competed to be the fastest car on the hill, all vying to win prizes including Android IdeaPads, trophies, medals and other goodies from both Google and ASU.

Soapbox cars are motorless vehicles capable of racing downhill, using just gravity and potential mechanical energy as the only propulsion mechanisms.

The Church Street race track was 650-feet long and some cars topped speeds at 30 miles per hour. The average speed was 17 miles per hour.

Each car competed in two event categories within its division: Speed and Creativity. With a time of 26.213 seconds, Hudson Middle School won the speed category in the middle school division beating 22 other teams. Caldwell Career Middle College won the speed category in the high school division, defeating 7 high school teams with a time of 26.962. Hudson Middle School also won the People’s Choice Award, given to the car the attendees voted as their overall favorite. Each team entered a car that was either custom-built or was created from an approved kit.

In the Creativity category, Jacobs Fork Middle School and St. Stephens High School took home top honors. In the open division, ASU’s North Carolina Center for Engineering Technologies won for its two-bicycle design. A list with all winners and participating schools is below.

ASU’s physics, technology and design graduate students, and Googlers from the data center in Caldwell County, served as mentors for the teams.

View the complete results and event photos at www.ncgravitygames.com.

Please continue to visit this blog for more details about the next soapbox race. We're going to expand it to include more counties.

Winners
Creativity - First-place winners only
Middle School: Jacobs Fork Middle School
High School: St. Stephens High School
Open: North Carolina Center for Engineering Technologies (NCCET) at ASU

People’s Choice Award: Hudson Middle School

Speed:
Middle School
First Place: Hudson Middle School
Second Place: William Lenoir Middle School (#31 car)
Third Place: Mountain View Elementary School

High School
First Place: Caldwell Career Center Middle College
Second Place: Newton-Conover High School
Third Place: Hickory High School

Open
First place - Google
Second place - ASU

Participating schools include the following:

Alleghany County Alleghany High School Piney Creek Elementary School Sparta Elementary School Avery County Avery County High School Cranberry Middle School Burke County East Burke High School Freedom High School East Burke Middle School Caldwell County Caldwell Career Center Middle College Collettsville School Hibriten High School Hudson Middle School Granite Falls Middle School William Lenoir Middle School

Happy Valley School Oak Hill School King's Creek Accelerated Elementary School Catawba County Hickory High School Newton-Conover High School St. Stephens High School Jacobs Fork Middle School Newton -Conover Middle School Northview Middle School Mountain View Elementary Catawba Rosenwald School NCCET/Appalachian State University Watauga County Green Valley Elementary School