By Tippi Rasp Staff Writer



Several students who recently were rewarded for their hard work in academics said the program that offers them the advanced training also will help them in their college endeavors.

Ethan White, Travis Harmon and Justin Otto, all students at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics Regional Center at Autry Technology Center, were among other students across the state who placed in scholastic testing and design competitions at the University of Oklahoma College of Engineering Open House.

"(The classes) are challenging and I like that about them," White, an Enid High School senior said. "It's getting me used to college where I will have to work harder."

Otto, a Drummond High School senior, and Harmon, a Cimarron High School senior, competed in the rubber band powered vehicle competition. White garnered first in the computer science competition.

Otto was first in the rubber band competition and tied for third place, out of 170 participants, in the math competition.

Harmon was second in the rubber band competition and tied for third in the math contest.

Otto and Harmon worked together on the rubber band project and both made their vehicles out of a ping pong ball, rubber band and small plastic straw. They had a side competition to see who could make their vehicle travel the furthest and most efficiently.

Scores were tallied by taking the distance traveled and dividing it by the weight and time. Otto scored a 4,500 and Harmon scored 3,900. The third place score was 3,100.

"We decided the smaller the better," Otto said, adding the vehicles weighed about half as much as a quarter.

Otto said he and Harmon studied the rules in order to construct the best vehicle.

White, an advanced placement physics and AP calculus student at OSSM Autry Tech, Otto and Harmon are second-year students in the OSSM Autry Tech program. Students choose morning or afternoon classes and are taught physics and calculus by Mike Jantz and Luciano Fleischfresser. Only a handful of students return for a second year in the program. White, Otto and Harmon are all second-year students.

White said he is thinking of attending an in-state college to pursue a degree in the medical field.

Otto said he recently talked to the parents of a Duke University student and former OSSM graduate who said the OSSM classes were more challenging than her coursework at the North Carolina school.