ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Central Baldwin Middle School’s hardworking party of 55, made up of 24 students and parent chaperones and one very excited teacher, Tiffaney Plato, the school’s career technologies enrichment teacher, descend on Orlando, Fla., last earlier this summer. Their mission: win all that was winnable at the national Technology Students Association convention/competition and have a great time. The event was held June 28 through July 2.

Mission accomplished.

According to Plato, “For the seventh consecutive year, the TSA students from Central Baldwin Middle school won a national title.”

The competition features real-life problems. Some students had to build bridges that had to withstand a stress test and some prepared a digital photography portfolio.

“The competition offers a hands-on approach to technology,” said Plato. “It emphasizes math skills, technology and engineering.”

The TSA program at CBMS has been growing in popularity, and this year, the CBMS delegation received a plaque for having the largest middle school chapter at the convention. The program at CBMS is open to seventh and eighth grade students. Each student earned a place on the team by placing first at the state competition earlier this year.

“This was largest year, with 24 students representing Central Baldwin Middle School,” said Plato.

The TSA program is open to middle and high school students, and the challenges are broken up by grade level.

While many of the competitions were sponsored by engineering and other companies, the middle school students will have to wait until at least until after they graduate from high school to explore the opportunities offered by those firms.

A group of young men to watch is “Team Phoenix,” consisting of Ryan Gordon, Isaac Bradford, Patrick Kucera, Hunter Vaughn, and Eli Grider. The five earned “rookie of the year” honors at the TSA “Formula One” Challenge. The team had to design and race a model “Formula One” race car. They placed sixth in the middle school division. This was an international competition, and the five were up against some determined competitors.

“We thought the name was neat,” said Gordon. “The phoenix bird was invincible.”

Invincible or not, the team had its work cut out for them as they used 3D software and had to code their design so a “CNC” router could cut it out. Finding the best tire for their model proved a particular challenge.

“We tried different wheels,” said Kucera.”

“We were looking for something lighter,” said Gordon.

“Yes, something speedier,” said Kucera.

After much testing and design work, Team Phoenix went with a set of nylon tires.

The students checked their design using the Foley High School wind tunnel. While the team did all the design and testing work themselves, they received help from the following sponsors: Alto Products Incorporated, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Dixon Screen Printing, Performance Graphics, J. Godwin Refrigeration, Auto Image, Hi-Rev Performance and Deep South Speedway.

For Andrew Lindell and James Mack, building bridges seems to come naturally. “The bridge was 12 inches long, and they gave us 10 sticks of balsa wood to build it with,” said Lindell.

The test wasn’t all that much a surprise,” Mack said. We knew we’d have to design (a bridge) when we got there. We just didn’t know what size.”

While all the bridges were impressive-looking, the real test came the next day (after the glue had dried) when each bridge was loaded with weight. Lindell and Mack’s balsa-wood bridge finally snapped after taking a load of 101 pounds, giving them a first-place win in the “structural challenge” competition. According to Plato, this was CBMS’ third first-place win in this competition.

Plato added that Misti Johnson earned a third place win in the Communications Challenge” competition. “Misti had to develop a binder which contained a CBMS letterhead, and sponsorship letter, a newsletter of the local club’s activities and a business card,” said Plato.

While at the competition, Johnson had to complete an onsite project once she’d been chosen as a top 10 finalist. This was the first third place finish in this contest area for CBMS.

Robert Thrower designed and cut out a small dragster that used carbon dioxide as its power source. Dubbed “Neon Blurr” by its builder and designer, the 35.6 gram vehicle blazed down a 75-foot track in .88 seconds. Thrower earned a top 16 win for his school out of 142 middle school entrants, the first time the school has done so well in that competition.

Perhaps only other photographers can appreciate the job Kristen Curtis did at Orlando. She has to complete a two-hour onsite project, taking digital photos of “people places, and things” and then use imaging editing software to produce an enhanced project. She placed sixth overall.

While exciting and tiring, Plato sees a lot of value in the competition, citing how each project had to combine elements of writing, mathematics, and other subjects to produce a winning portfolio.

“We want to thank everyone who helped financially support the students towards their trip. Again, the trip would not have been possible without you. Thank you again for your support,” said Plato.

According to Plato, other students who placed first at the state competition and attended the conference from CBMS were: Kathryn Bankester, Sarah Sawyer, Breaded Ramey, Erica Mimms, Laura Andrews and Scarlett Majors were in the Chapter Team. Austin Vivar participated in the Marine Design Challenge. Erica Alexander, Paige Cooper and Rachel Lomax competed in the “Cyberspace Pursuit.” Cory Wilson. competed in Electrical Applications. Cody Pardue soared in the Flight Challenge,.Lauren Trawick competed in Prepared Speech, and Lee Murphy sharpened his pen for Technical Writing competition.