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Engineers and science enthusiasts, get ready to put your minds to the test.
Big Ten universities in the United States are getting the chance of a lifetime to achieve a Guinness World Records title as well as win a cash award for $25,000.
Bayer has announced a call for entries to the Bayer-Big Ten Alka-Rocket Challenge; a competition requiring students to design and launch an Alka-Rocket with the aim of setting a new record for Highest launch of an effervescent tablet (Alka-Rocket).
An Alka-Rocket is a model rocket often built using a 35mm film canister and propelled by the chemical reaction that occurs when effervescent tablets are mixed with water, demonstrating Newton’s third law of motion.
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Alka-Rocket model rockets are a staple of Bayer's Making Science Make Sense® (MSMS) science-literacy initiative, to demonstrate principles of chemistry and physics.
They have become a classic way to demonstrate science in schools, but now students who are clever enough to propel the rockets to great heights can now also make a piece of record-breaking history, as well as winning a substantial amount of prize money.
On top of all this, the winning team will also be recognized on the field during the Big Ten Football Championship Game in Indianapolis, Ind., on December 2.
The current challenge is open to teams of students from each of the 14 universities in the Big Ten Conference, which is known as the oldest division in the US collegiate athletic conference.
Teams who wish to participate in the Alka-Rocket challenge can submit their competition proposals to
AlkaRocketChallenge.com by September 29th 2017.
Four university finalists will be announced on October 16th, and will gather at NASA's Space Center Houston in Texas on November 8th to launch their rockets for the official record attempt.
The finalists will be determined by a panel of expert and accomplished judges, including Cliff Ransom, Executive Editor of Scientific American Custom Media, and Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American female NASA astronaut to go into space. These judges will determine the finalists based on design, execution and creativity.
Competition guidelines/rules and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are available here.
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