Play with food at annual Edible Car Contest
By Nicole Williams
IV Leader Staff, Mar 15, 2007
The Second Annual Edible Car Contest was held last Wed.
Feb. 21 for students to race and win prizes. A total of 37 different cars were
entered into the contest by 112 students.
The contest was being held in honor of National Engineer’s
Week. The objects used for building ranged from cucumbers to rice crispy treats.
The cars had to be designed by teams that included at least one female member,
and had to be completely made of food edible to humans. The cars also needed to
be constructed to roll down a 3 foot ramp and not break apart in the process.
All entries were judged on speed, design, creativity, and
detail, and other “special” categories. According to Rose Marie Lynch, an
organizer of the event, “Students working with other people and eating the spare
parts were two pluses of competing. The purpose of the competition, however, was
to demonstrate that math and science…can be fun.”
The top prize for the speed category went to the only faculty
entry in the contest. The team called Constructing Edible Transportation Like
Art included Mary Smith, Holly Mathews, and Kathy Baker.
They mirrored the name to fit CETLA or Center for Excellence
in Teaching, Learning and Assessment, a faculty center for which Smith and
Mathews are co-directors of.
The winner for the best design went to Team Ramrod. The
members included Jimmy Einhaus, Ricky Cauldaron, Mike Crouch, and Kendra Carey.
The team used an eggplant for the body and English muffins for the wheels.
The best detail winner was Team Snap, Crackle, Pop, and Deb
made up of Deb Ramirez, Kim Warwick, Steven Yurly, and Judith Kirchner.
The engineering technology students entered a car made with a
body of crispy treats. The prize for best creativity was won by Team Cobra. The
students on the team consisted of A.J. Deters, Mike Garland, and Katie Zeman who
made a vehicle made out of a body of salami and wheels of cheese. “Getting the
axels straight and parallel was our biggest problem” said a member of Team
Cobra.
All together there were six special categories for which
students won prizes for. The Flying Under the Radar prize was won by Team A
Taste in Time. Most Aerodynamic was won by the Prosimians team. The Most
Expensive Looking category was won by Team Cobra. The Fastest Looking car went
to Team Keebler Convertible. The Shortest Shelf Life was won by Lady Jac’s.
The last special prize given out was Snap Krackle Pop and
first place went to A Little Ricey. Prizes kept with the edible theme and
included: Olympic medals and Nascar models made of chocolate and glass bottles
shaped like eagles, filled with pickled garlic.
Judges were IVCC Board members Paula Endress and David
Mallory, manufacturing professor Tim Bias, life science professor Sue Caley
Opsal, and criminal justice professor Rebecca Donna. Organizers of the contest
were Dorene Perez, Jim Gibson, and Rose Marie Lynch.