RIP Challenger

Twenty two years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff. We're lucky all of our rockets are unmanned.

Sixth Meeting: Glorious Eggs, Philosophy

EDIT: Hey look, we were featured on the Beaver web site, with pictures and everything!

Friday's meeting was, in a word, glorious. We started out by just taping two rocket engines to an egg facing opposite directions--it spun and whirred and when the smoke cleared the egg was just plain old gone. And then we launched Vivek's group's 2-stage egg rocket, which sort of hovered in the air for a moment before dropping to the ground. And when the first engine ignited the second, the first got shot out the back and off it went. It actually caught on fire, and it was burning quite nicely before Ms. Nickerson cruelly put it out. Too bad. The warmth was much appreciated while it lasted. And for the final one, we tried igniting three engines at once. And, well, two of them went!


Video: BSEC: Sixth Meeting (Third Year)

Ineconomies of Scale

Unfortunately, our attendance dropped to the lowest it's been all year on Friday. It's too bad, since it was such an entertaining meeting. But we inevitably reach this point every year--the point where seemingly overnight, half the club disappears. We're completely to blame, of course. We've never been even remotely organized, and there's just not enough stuff for 40 people to do every meeting.

But today's meeting only confirmed what many club members have known for a long time: with very few people, we can be very productive.

So we've been thinking. What if we had "do" meetings and "view" meetings? I feel bad that all members are obliged to go to all meetings, even the ones where nothing happens. So what if a core group prepared things for everyone else to watch at perscribed times? It would be even better if we could get everyone actively involved, of course--for instance, by splitting into subclubs with different foci, like model rocketry or potato guns or robotics. But we're not sure we can pull that off. Everything is completely undecided right now--let us know what you think in the comments.

(Note also that even if we don't announce when we'll be shooting off the rockets, there's a simple formula: come late. But not too late, of course. I'd say 12:20 is when things typically get going. Although actually, today we were shockingly speedy getting the first rocket egg launched....)

Fifth Meeting: More Egg Stuff

On January 11 we had our fifth meeting of the year. Because of bad weather, we didn't have a chance to finish off the egg launch contest, and most people left early. But those who didn't fiddled with strapping model rocket engines right onto the eggs themselves. Video coming soon.

Fourth Meeting: Egg Launch

On Friday, November 30, we began our third annual egg launch contest. We are now divided into three groups, and from what I've seen we all made good progress. (I hear Peter's group has already started testing!) We'll try to finish up and actually get them launched next meeting.

Normally I say "video coming soon" or whatever. This time I won't bother. Frankly, there's not a whole lot to report....... yet. :)

Third Meeting: Kid Pix, Potato Rocket and Target

We started off the meeting with a healthy dose of Kid Pix. Once it became clear that we wouldn't get anything done for at least 20 minutes, I felt bad and let everyone go. But a select few stayed behind, and were rewarded for their patience. Willy stuck a rocket engine in a potato, and we took a few shots at the trusty old target--which, by the way, got a nice shout-out during the Cum Laude assembly the other day. :) Video coming soon.

UPDATE Feb. 9: OK, so the video probably isn't coming soon, but you can spot a quick clip of this meeting in the video montage over at The Beaver Reader.

Second Meeting: Nocka Rockets

Our dear onetime member Andrew Nocka may have left us for the UK, but his spirit lives on in the noble tradition of Nocka Rockets. Today we fired a few off, including a sort of corkscrew one and one with wings. Plus we ate cake. :)


Video: BSEC: Second Meeting (Third Year)

First Meeting: Dry Ice and Potato Gun

We held our first meeting of this year on October 5, and I think it went pretty well. We played with dry ice and the potato gun. I've posted a video recap below.

One thing that we're aware of is that there was quite a bit of waiting, and we didn't have a chance for everyone in the club to really get involved. That's a hard thing to do with forty people, which is why we may experiment with breaking into multiple groups at our next meeting.

If anyone has any other comments, feel free to email Peter, Vivek, or me, or leave a comment on this post.

I know I had a lot of fun, and we look forward to seeing you again this Friday! We'll be playing with rockets, potato guns (bulding our own!!), and using magical chemistry skills unlike the world has ever seen, making silly putty. :)

Year 3 Begins

On Friday we announced the third year of the Beaver Science and Engineering Club. Unfortunately, Vivek could not be present, but at the last minute he beamed us this transmission from space:

"Dear Students of Beaver Country Day School,

"I am sorry I was unable to partake in this ceremonial gathering to commemorate the 3rd annual BSEC initiation, for I too am partaking in a ceremony of galactic proportions. Yes... that's right...I'm on the moon--that glowing white object you see in the sky every night. I would have come back, but... it would seem that upon arrival of this dusty, mountainous abyss of moon world that my space ship found its way deep, deep, deep into a giant cavity on the moon's surface.

"In other words, I got stuck in a crater.

"I give my sincerest apologies, and I... [radio cut off] ...Great Oz! They have eyes... red eyes... and tentacles... Mr. Adjout, help me!"

We wish the best of luck to Vivek and his crew.

On a happier note, this year we had a record 36 sign-ups, plus the three co-presidents and two faculty advisors for a grand total of 41 members. Our first meeting will be Friday, October 5. Hope to see you all there!

- Toph

P.S. If this is your first time looking around the blog, here's a link to a few BSEC videos from the past.