TORONTO, May 12, 2004 -- It’s York University’s 25th annual Engineering and Science Olympics, not the summer games in Athens, which is the destination for more than 1100 high school students this Friday, May 14, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The games, being held at York’s Keele campus, will bring together students from more than 67 schools from across Ontario to battle it out in six "brainathlon" events that take science out of the classroom and put it into action.
"These games give participating students an opportunity to learn about the real-world applications of science," says Keith Aldridge, York professor of geophysics and founder of the outreach program. "Two of the events, the York Lander and Lost in Space, will give students valuable insights into York’s pioneering work on the 2007 "Phoenix" Scout Mission to Mars and the recently launched Gravity Probe B (intended to test Einstein's theory on general relativity).”
At the end of the day, prizes will be awarded to the best three teams in each event and a trophy will be presented to the overall winning school. Team events are designed by York Professors in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science to entertain players and spectators and to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of fundamental laws behind modern scientific and technological advances:
York Lander - Students will design and build a small "planetary lander". An uncooked egg inside the lander must be protected from the impact arising from the lander being hurled from a predetermined height onto a target.
Lost in Space - Students seated on a swivel stool will use a gyroscope (and their body) to point themselves in a specific direction. (This event illustrates the purpose of NASA’s Gravity Probe B mission.)
Bio-Steeplechase - Teams will compete to answer multiple choice questions located at a series of obstacle or hurdles. The team answering the most questions with the fewest attempts is the winner.
Chemical Squabble - Teams will compete by making up formulae of chemical compounds in "Scrabble" fashion from a pack of cards, each of which has the name of an element or radical on it.
Robocode II - Using a robotics battle simulator, students will program a robotic battletank in Java for a fight to the finish. Contestants will compete in heats, with the highest scoring robot competing in a final to determine the winning school.
Fermi Questions - This event was named for Enrico Fermi, who sought to challenge the quantitative thinking powers of his students with questions that required order-of-magnitude answers. For example, students could be asked to estimate the number of piano tuners in Toronto and other similar questions involving simple arithmetic and sensible guessing.
The Engineering and Science Olympics kick off at 8:30 a.m. in Lecture Hall "A" of the Computer Science and Engineering Building, Keele Campus, 4700 Keele St. For program details see the Website at: www.science.yorku.ca/fpas/olympics/
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For further information, please contact:
Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22086.
kturriff@yorku.ca
YU/070/04
