One of the events is Wright Stuff, an event where a wooden plane is built by the students. It is to be powered with a rubber band. The plane that flies the longest wins. The planes are flown indoors in a gymnasium. They go around in circles, slowly flying around and around. If the plane goes too high and hits the ceiling, supports or basketball equipment it is doomed. If it is too low its flight pattern will be shorter and it will be out of the running for a win.
This is my son's first time participating in Wright Stuff. He chose to do this activity. He loves the process of working on this project. He likes both the project work and spending time with these boys. My son has already purchased additional materials to work on model planes at home on his own (for fun). He has already drawn plans for an interesting plane design.
This is an example of where a scholastic competition geared toward schooled kids showed my son a new thing that could be done in his spare time for fun.
Unschoolers take note that organized, structured, formal events like this for kids (designed for school kids) can wind up helping a (homeschooled) child find a passion--not all (homeschooled) kids can find a new passion all by themselves. Some unschoolers I know shun anything related to school or anything competitive or anything created for schooled kids, so others of that mindset is who I'm directing that to.
Here are some photos of my son flying a test plane. Due to privacy concerns I am not sharing photos of the other team members (but I wish I could so you could see the fun they have interacting with each other and their positive teamwork).
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