Horizon Elementary School
Johnston, IA
Problem 1, Division I
There was no escaping this team’s outstanding creativity and astounding engineering! They had an entire intricate system of tracks for their vehicles with a series of pressure sensitive pads that started a cascade of motors and springs.  This changed the layout of the track, allowing the vehicle to weave and dodge through the getaway zone. The team’s effort, dedication, and risk-taking were evident to the judges through both the inspection of the craftsmanship and the discussion with the team.

Geneseo Central Sch
Geneseo, NY
Problem 1, Division III
Time and time again, throughout its performance, this team wowed the judges with the unexpected ways they solved this problem combining science, engineering with dramatic panache. It had a parking garage that automatically lowered each vehicle and a trio of vehicles with a unique means of travel. A tortoise walked using fully articulated legs and a chameleon moved by grabbing a track with its tongue while changing color to blend in with the background. Finally, a vehicle used an electrically controlled pneumatic piston to leap off the end of a track, flipping 360 degrees to avoiding being caught before righting itself and continuing on its trip.

Raffles Girls Secondary School
Singapore
Problem 2, Division II
This team literally stretched bottle parts farther than these judges had ever seen!  Some examples include beautiful flowers made from clear egg cartons, realistic roses made from shards of plastic bottles –curled by candlelight, a soccer ball made of twisted plastic rope, and a lava lamp made by gluing bottles together so airtight that the creation could hold liquid. The team completely transformed every bottle into something totally new and unexpected. It treated plastic as a raw material that barely resembled its original form!

 Stow Isierski Wyobraznik
Warszawa, Poland
Problem 3, Division II
All the elements of the team’s solution — backdrops, furniture, artwork and costumes –were made from over 120,000 individually rolled newspaper sticks. This team dazzled the judges with its intricacy by spending over seven months rolling newspaper into 4 – 12” sticks and creatively weaving together its stage set and props. Every inch of the stage was a piece of current newsprint art that could be hung in a museum. The team went a step further by collecting newspapers from the actual places where the time travelers went—Russia and the Netherlands. They even skillfully made their required recognizable art from this amazing medium.

South Mecklenburg HS
Charlotte, NC
Problem 3, Division III
A 15-foot tall haunted house transformed into a raven with a 24′ wingspan, an old-fashioned dress opened to reveal a working puppet theatre in its skirt, an anthropomorphic shadow trailing behind the imposing Edgar Allan OMER. The team incorporated all of Poe’s greatest works into its beautiful, multi-functional, and downright scary sets, costumes, and props. The effect was frighteningly good – you could say it was Poe-fect Style!

Algood Middle School
Algood TN
Problem 4, Division II
This team took paint by numbers and repurposing to a new artistic level. During an entertaining game show, contestants played operation on a towering life-sized replica made out of milk cartons – it even buzzed with a doorbell attached to a red light bulb! Another fascinating prop was an OMER face mosaic. When the structure snapped under a stack of weights, members picked up the mosaic to reveal hundreds of crayons, that when precisely assembled, came together to form OMER’s face. In a flash, one performer yanked the cardboard out of place and the tubes came thundering down, spilling a colorful disarray on the floor as the audience gave an audible gasp.

QINGDAO TAIPING RD. PRI. SCH
QINGDAO, CHINA
Problem 4, Division II
This team embodied the spirit of the problem using intricate props, dazzling costumes, body language, and a strong foundation of teamwork to present a solution executed with clean precision. Opening with a golden bear destroying the gate to a garden, members worked together to assemble a fruit wall. Then with the help of a general dressed in aluminum foil, three team members precisely measured multiple pieces to assemble sections tubes and complete the structural representation, relying upon encouraging signals from their peers over spoken dialogue, demonstrating their strength in teamwork. This same teamwork constructed the fruity wall in eight minutes, built a rich backdrop with moving boats and whirling gadgets, created an impressive structure, and captivated the audience with movement and dance to creatively communicate their story of neighborly harmony.