Northern Cambria High School

NCHS is excited to announce that 5 high school students competed in 2 events at the TSA National Competition in Orlando last week, winning one event and placing 6th in another. All 5 students made it on stage with over 7,000 people in attendance from across the country and world, traveling from  countries such as Germany, Turkey, South Korea and America Samoa. This is a huge accomplishment for these hardworking and dedicated students. 

 

Ava Messina, Ben Messina, Drake Weller, and Ace Drumm

 

Delilah Nave and Ava Messina

 

The Senior Solar Sprint team worked exceptionally hard to give them a shot at winning this year.  Since the race is only 20% of the final score, they worked on making sure their documentation, car design, and display box were top notch.  They designed their car like a surfboard, 3D printed a surfer as their ball and socket to rotate their solar panel, and then designed their display box to look like a beach scene.  By doing this they guaranteed themselves a perfect score on these parts of the competition.  After making the top 16, they had an interview with the judges.  Knowing their car was not one of the faster ones, they needed to try and make up ground with the interview.  The shock on the team's faces says it all when they were announced the winning team.  (The video is on the TSA Facebook Page and is worth watching to see their reactions.) 

 

In Structural Engineering, Delilah in her first year of doing TSA was determined to place at the national conference.  She built over 30 structures between states and nationals to learn as much as she could about building the balsa wood beam as efficiently as possible.  She and Ava built a structure for the national conference that was able to make it into the top 20 semifinals.  Then the team had to build a structure onsite in under 2 hours, similar to their original design, with a few changes and limited supplies. Even under the pressure, they were able to pull off a 6th place finish. 

 

Congratulations to advisors: Matt and Sarah Kline!

We are so proud of how our little Northern Cambria shined bright on the National stage in Orlando! 

 

(NCHS has only had 1 other National Champion since it was chartered in the year 2000, which was in 3D CAD Engineering in 2005, Adam Zatorsky.) 

Congratulations to the NC KidWind team who placed 2nd at the State Championship today at Penn State University. The defending state champs were hoping to keep their title, but fell short in a close competition. 

 

The team of Ethan Donatelli, Jack Sheredy, Mikey Konitsky, and Ethan Blickenderfer have spent many hours updating their wind turbine to be better then last years.  During testing they produced an expected amount of power, and their presentation and interview was one of their best. 

 

Even though this is the end of the road for them, they have learned many skills that will last a lifetime. Their presentation skills and interview ability have increased drastically since last year. They also have amazing problem solving skills, as every competition, this year and last, they overcame issues with their turbine and always came out in top.