Students to Liven Up 'Dead Day' With Razorback Technology Challenge

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Brian Ludwig, left, and Cody Teague, technology education students in the College of Education and Health Professions, launch dragsters on the track during the 2010 Razorback Technology Challenge.

About 400 competitors from Arkansas and Oklahoma middle schools, junior high schools and high schools will converge on the University of Arkansas campus on Friday, Dec. 9, for the Razorback Technology Challenge at the Arkansas Union.

This year's problem-solving event features "The Motorcycle Stunt," in which students form engineering design teams that design a vehicle to go airborne. The vehicle that "flies" the greatest distance from the end of a motorcycle ramp wins.

The challenge, in its sixth year to be held on Dead Day on the Fayetteville campus, gives students from many middle schools, junior high schools and high schools in the region a chance to showcase projects they have been working on all year in technology education and pre-engineering classes, said Vinson Carter, a clinical instructor of technology and engineering education. Dead Day provides a break for university students between the end of regular classes and the beginning of final exams.

About 40 students in the College of Education and Health Professions, which sponsors the event, will help that day, along with a few students from other colleges who are taking technology education courses. The office of admissions and Upward Bound program are also volunteering some staff.

Participants will engage in activities such as building and racing dragsters, building and testing towers, creating graphic designs, and competing in the technology quiz bowl and the problem-solving challenge. Trophies will be presented to the winners of each section and for the school with the overall best representation.

The event has served as a recruiting tool with several students who attended previous challenges now enrolled in the technology education and engineering programs at the university. Competition will take place in the Arkansas Union and the Graduate Education Building.