McKinney North High School claimed their third consecutive victory—and fourth all-time—in the MISD "Battle of the Blues" Physics Olympics held at the YMCA Collin County Adventure Camp on Tuesday, March 29.

McKinney, Texas – In the far-flung reaches of the northern Collin County countryside, the MISD “Battle of the Blues” Physics Olympics made its highly anticipated return on Tuesday, March 29, after a 2-year hiatus. At stake was another year’s worth of bragging rights with 19 teams from McKinney Boyd High School, McKinney High School and McKinney North High School vying for physics glory.

Teams competed in two divisions (AP and Academic) for team medals and points for their school. Once the dust had settled, McKinney North were the ones hoisting the Cup, claiming their fourth overall win in the MISD Physics Olympics and their third consecutive victory.

“It feels really good,” said North junior Kathryn Case, a member of The Khanematics team. “We were a little worried I think, but I think that we all did really well, especially our AP teams. My team personally placed in all 7 events, so that’s really great. And, I had an awesome time. It was really fun. I’m really proud of us.”

Winning teams are listed at the end of the article.

The daylong competition tested students’ creativity and knowledge of physics in quirky events such as the Mousetrap Car, in which students built a small, weighted vehicle powered by—as you may have guessed—a mousetrap. The object, if not the execution, was simple: travel farther than your opponents’ vehicle. Some went quite far, a few struggled, and one unfortunate Mousetrap Car negated a promising run by coming to a stop and then rolling backward. The winner pulled off a run of 527 inches.

Mousetrap Car

Mousetrap Car

Mousetrap Car

Mousetrap Car

Across the camp at the zip line tower, was the prophetically named Egg Drop Soup event, where coming up short was almost as much fun as success. Teams were given 10 minutes and a baggie containing a sundry assortment of balloons, string, Dixie cups and bits of tape to create a protective capsule for an egg, which was then dropped from a platform 8 meters off the ground. It proved a tough task for the teams, but perhaps more so for the eggs. In spite of some truly clever designs, the teams battled not only the elements of time and gravity, but also a rather fierce wind which blew several efforts into neighboring trees, upsetting the proceedings and hurtling the eggs to a dismal end. Nevertheless, five redoubtable teams’ eggs reached the ground unscathed.

Egg Drop Soup

Egg Drop Soup

Egg Drop Soup

Egg Drop Soup

Egg Drop Soup

Egg Drop Soup

Egg Drop Soup

Back in the main building, the Quiz Show event tested students’ knowledge of physics through an online quiz format as competitors and coaches kept a watchful eye on the constantly flip-flopping progress on the digital leaderboard.

Quiz Show

Quiz Show

Quiz Show

The Span 68 competition called on students to create the strongest possible 68 centimeter bridge using only straws, straight pins, file clips and tape. The win went to the UAP team from McKinney Boyd whose bridge held fast under 340 grams.

Span 68 Bridge Challenge

Span 68 Bridge Challenge

Span 68 Bridge Challenge

Span 68 Bridge Challenge

Span 68 Bridge Challenge

Other events included the Slow Bike Race (which was more entertaining than the name implies), the Sling Fling and points for best T-Shirt Design.

Slow Bike Race

Slow Bike Race

Sling Fling

Sling Fling

Sling Fling

“The takeaway from the Physics Olympics is to show mastery over physics concepts that students have learned so far in their instruction in the classroom, to take for example, the mousetrap car that they’ve designed or the trebuchet that they’ve done in the classroom and bring it out to this event and showcase a deeper way of thinking. It seems like they are having a great time, and I love watching kids having fun while they are also demonstrating what they know.”

Here are the 1st Place winning teams from each high school.

McKinney North High School

The Khancept Masters — McKinney North High School
Quiz Show — 1st Place (AP)
Sling Fling — 1st Place (AP)
T-Shirt Design — 1st Place (AP)
(L-R) Tavion Smith, Tara Tisserand, Darby Tippit, Patrick Enerio, Nathan Liow

The Khanematics — McKinney North High School
Slow Bike Race — 1st Place (AP)
(L-R) Aris Williams, Kathryn Case, Macklin Kehoe, Jason Zapanta, Laila Mostafavi

Ohm My Gosh — McKinney North High School
Sling Fling — 1st Place (Academic)
(L-R) Phillip Duncan, Quinn Steele, Josh Hojas

McKinney Boyd High School

UAP – Unidentified Aerial Pancakes — McKinney Boyd High School
Egg Drop Soup — 1st Place (AP)
Span 68 — 1st Place (AP)
(L-R) Weston Dudley, Jaden Abraham, Tyler Holderman, Katelynn Luton, Emmanuel Rios

Lab Cats — McKinney Boyd High School
Egg Drop Soup — 1st Place (Academic)
Span 68 — 1st Place (Academic)
(L-R) Cesar Nuno, Connor Rolf, Jonah Weiss, Nicholas Woodward, Ian Aranibar

QUANTUM-playtors — McKinney Boyd High School
T-Shirt Design — 1st Place (Academic)
(L-R) Elijah Lena, Kelsey Palya, Theresa Schmidt, Sebastian Smith

McKinney High School

The 5th Law / Fabulous Feng’s — McKinney High School
Mousetrap Car — 1st Place (AP)
(L-R) Sammy Elhindi, Zachary Miller, Rachel Wilson, Jordan Sexton, Ariana Moin

The Unstoppable Force — McKinney High School
Mousetrap Car — 1st Place (Academic)
Quiz Show — 1st Place (Academic)
(L-R) Labeeb Kibria, Jaydon Beacham, Nashmia Kibria, Dylan Bloxham, Conrad Hull

E=(MHS)^5 — McKinney High School
Slow Bike Race — 1st Place (Academic)
(L-R) Luke Tucker, Roman Proctor, Levi Zimmerle, Charles Robert Moses, Alexander Perez

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