JPL competition conquered

On Dec. 5, Samo’s Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering team won third place in the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) “Bucket Brigade Contest” competition. This follows their first place win in the regionals. The competition challenged high school teams to create a device that could move an eight-liter water container five meters away and empty it into a bucket in less than 60 seconds. Samo’s team finished the final challenge in 9.18 seconds, putting them in third place.

The specified project for these students took several trials and hard work, according to team leader Brandon Kirbyson (’26).

“We’ve been preparing for the month prior to the regionals, and the two weeks leading up to it we were [working on the machine] every day: flex, lunch and after school,” Kirbyson said. “Everyone on our team knows each other and really cares about the success of the device and the team, so they put in time and effort.”

Last year’s group won at the finals for the 2024 JPL competition. Their challenge was to create a machine that launches 50 chocolate-coated peanuts over a barrier. The students won using a crossbow specially modified for the challenge.

Despite not achieving first place this year, the team demonstrated commitment throughout the competition. Team participant Bernard Van Bilderbeek (’26) commented on the process of building.

“We built it on computer-aided design (CAD) modeling and 3D printed most of the parts and used the wood shop to match all of it together,” Bilderbeek said. He also spoke on the experience he’s had with the PLTW program. “The focus and the hands-on learning in [PLTW] is really good… you’re taking what you’d do in three classes and mixing it into one big project.”

The yearly participation in the JPL competitions is a staple for this engineering program, and students are excited to continue on next year.