On March 4, 28 Pleasant Valley students from the Physics Competition club participated in the Dubuque Physics Competition, competing against several schools from the Dubuque area.
The Physics Competition club was created in 2024 to give students an opportunity to plan, build and compete in physics-based challenges. The program is run by science teacher Brianna Finnegan and student team managers Sarah Engrstom and Tayva McClimon.
The Dubuque physics competition is hosted annually. This year’s event had the largest turnout yet, with six participating high schools: Dubuque Hempstead, Dubuque Senior, Pleasant Valley, Waukon, Walhart and Clayton Ridge. Hempstead and Dubuque Senior placed first and second, respectively, while PV finished third overall. In total, the competition includes six events: mousetrap cars, optical slalom, toothpick bridges, catapults, flying machines and Fermi questions. Final standings are determined by the combined results from each event.
Students compete in teams of two and choose their events weeks before the competition. In the weeks leading up to the event, teams design, build and test their projects. For many students, preparation before the competition is just as important as the competition day itself. “We spent a lot of time over several days building and making tweaks to our design so that it would be competition-ready,” said PV Senior Cooper Bries
Several events require teams to build devices ahead of time. The catapult, mousetrap car, flying machine and toothpick bridge all require pre-built mechanisms that must meet specific size and design requirements.
For the catapult event, teams must construct a device that fits within certain dimensions and launches a ping-pong ball toward a target, testing both distance and accuracy. The mousetrap car event also includes size limitations, with teams aiming to stop their vehicle as close to a target line as possible.
In the flying machine event, teams design a small aerial device that is scored based on how long it stays in the air and how close it lands to a target. The toothpick bridge event tests structural strength, with teams evaluated by the amount of weight their bridge can support relative to its mass.
Two events do not require a pre-built device. In the optical slalom, teams guide a laser beam through obstacles using four plane mirrors to hit a target, with only three attempts allowed. The Fermi questions event is a timed test in which teams estimate quantities such as distance, area or population as accurately and quickly as possible. Senior Aayan Grewal, “Fermi questions test students over the most goofy stuff that the only way to solve it requires elite ball knowledge. For example, I remember I had to calculate the total number of threads in a large male cotton t-shirt.”
Although Pleasant Valley did not take home an overall team trophy, several students placed first in individual events. Dillon Kraus and Grant Cabay won first place for the catapult event. Valbhav Grandikota and Tanav Pokala placed first in the mousetrap car and Aayan Grewal and Vrayas Pila earned first place in Fermi questions.
The team will next compete at the state competition on April 7 and hopes to continue its strong performance.
