STEM Club Takes Off with Second Annual Paper Airplane Competition

On Wednesday while heavy rain that broke records in some parts of Massachusetts poured outside, the PVMHS STEM Club hosted their second annual paper airplane competition.

Participants constructed a wide variety of paper airplanes that were flown and measured up against other students’ designs. The turnout was smaller than that of the first paper airplane competition in 2014, which was supervised by Mr. Juhasz, so the “fastest flying” and “longest flying” categories were dropped from the list. "Distance traveled” was the only event that took place.

The participants gathered in Dr. Birch’s room, in the corner of C house on the second floor, where they constructed their flying contraptions from sheets of Staples® 8.5”x11” multipurpose paper. Once all of the paper airplanes had been built, the participants flew on down to the bus ramp, which showed signs of flooding, and the “distance traveled” event took place while the heavy rain continued to pour. Each participant had three chances to get to first place with their airplane; STEM Club executives Connor Leach and Anna Church were in charge of measuring the distances of each paper airplane’s flight.

In the end, Dr. Birch, PVMHS’ resident physics teacher and one of the first participants in the event, won first place with 12.87 meters from the starting line to the point where his plane touched the ground. Spanish teacher and track coach Mr. Rocha, who made an impromptu appearance, won second place in the competition with 8.00 meters. In third place was senior and STEM Club executive Jeremy Dunn, with 6.82 meters.

The PVMHS Stem Club meets every Wednesday after school in C267. For more information, visit their site here: http://www.pvmhsstem.org.