By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

MIAMI TWP. - The assignment sounded simple. Build a vehicle no wider than 31 centimeters that would travel at least 5 meters and could knock down bowling pins. No motors allowed.

Milford High School students (from left) Adam Camp 18, Isaiah Ratterman 18, Katie Gillman 17, and John Thompson 18 watch a cart head towards a bowling ball in testing. (Glenn Hartong photo)

But some 130 physics students-turned-engineers at Milford High School discovered an important lesson Monday: ideas that work on paper don't always pan out.

"We had to rebuild it about five times,'' said senior Rachel Colebrook, who worked with junior Jon White on their machine. "We tried a bunch of things - different weights, different wheels, different everything!"

Each team had about three weeks to build and test their invention. On Monday, the science hallway was turned into a two-lane bowling alley, split by black plastic piping.

Students decided whether to have their machine push a bowling ball to knock down the pins, have the machine knock them down or a combination of the two. Points were awarded for how many pins were knocked down.

"They're taking on the role of engineers,'' said physics teacher Jeff Radloff. "They have to design it in their head, put it on paper, build it and get it to work. It shows them that what they're learning has real-life applications.''

After two "gutter ball" attempts, senior Isaiah Ratterman got the hang of steering his 4-foot long invention, made with bicycle wheels in back, lawn mower tires in front, a wood frame, springs and bungee cord.

From a distance of 10 meters, Ratterman's vehicle knocked down a total of 20 pins.

Seniors Sydney Bates and Joe Richardson used a garage door spring placed inside PVC piping with string.

After testing their first vehicle, the duo went back to the drawing board and lengthened their PVC pipe by 6 inches after the string kept breaking.

Joe said next time he would "use stronger string and a weaker spring.''

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