Students’ Toss Wins Top Honors at JPL Competition

Monroe Magnet Middle School, Inglewood, Calif., claimed victory at the annual Invention Challenge, held today at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The event drew more than 240 students, teachers and guests from 18 schools throughout Southern California. This year’s challenge was to build a device capable of propelling a roll of toilet tissue in such a way that it creates a long, unbroken stream of tissue paper. The winner’s device created the longest stream of paper. It measured 10.8 meters (35 feet 5 inches).

A total of 20 student teams competed along with 8 teams made up of JPL engineers and scientists. The winning JPL team was led by Richard Goldstein.

The requirements for this year’s competition were that the devices had to be initiated by a single operation (cut a string, flick a switch, etc.), use safe energy sources, and be no taller than 2.5 meters (about 8 feet) and no wider than 2 meters (about 6.5 feet). The devices had to be made from non-toxic and safe materials.

The rules for the Invention Challenge change each year, but the goal is the same: to give students a better appreciation that math, science and engineering can be fun.