By Nancy Young
Enquirer contributor

Just about every kid has created a paper airplane and tried to make it fly. A group of Miami University seniors is giving that childhood activity a twist, and will spend this weekend racing paper snowboards down a slope at Winter Park Ski Resort in Colorado.

The team is one of 13 participating in the sixth annual Energy Challenge, a national collegiate competition designed to increase interest in science and engineering careers, while teaching concepts of energy use and waste reduction in the pulp and paper industry.

Energy Challenge is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Georgia Tech University's Institute of Paper Science and Technology.

The project supports the Energy Department's Agenda 2020, a program created to enhance the economic competitiveness of the U.S. forest products industry, and help the pulp and paper industry reach its vision of more energy-efficient manufacturing processes by 2020.

Previous Energy Challenges have featured students racing paper kayaks, windsurfing with a paper sail made from 100 pounds of wood chips, and hang-gliding with paper wings.

Greater Cincinnati residents Margie Huseman and Ben Vanlear are members of Miami's team.

"I got involved with Energy Challenge as part of a senior design class at Miami University," said Huseman, 22, from Delhi Township. "We started initial research on the paper snowboards in September and started building prototypes in January. All of the students involved are majors in either paper science or engineering."

The boards will be judged on such things as their ability to slide and glide, flexibility, appearance and materials used to make them.

A duel slalom course will test the board's ability to slide or glide as teams make turns around flags. Incorporated into the course will be a small set of rollers to test flexibility characteristics. The course measures about 700 feet in length with a 13.5-17 percent grade.

The challenge "allows our students to focus on ways to save energy and use sustainable resources, while forcing them to think outside the box," said R.C. Peterson, faculty adviser at Miami University.