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GHS senior hopes
effort 'amuses' FIRST judges
January 12, 2006
Greenville Herald Banner
By
Jay Strickland
The Herald Banner
COMMERCE – It all started with 5,000 unassembled pieces. When it
was finished it was a small scale amusement park with rides that
actually move.
Kevin
Morris, a senior at Greenville High School, spent a whole year
putting the roller coaster, Ferris wheel and wave swinger
together. Now it's on display at the Northeast Texas Children's
Museum in Commerce.
Morris is a member of the Greenville High School Robotics Team.
The organization the team competes through is called FIRST (For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). One of the
highest awards given at the competition, besides those for the
mechanics of building a robot, is the Chairman's Award.
"The
Chairman's Award is what you do to support technology and science
in your community," Morris said.
The
model amusement park will be Morris' entry in this year's contest.
He found the plans for the rides on the Internet and his robotics
coach, Vanessa Pope, encouraged him to build it. He went beyond
what the plans called for, though.
"The
plans were for the Ferris wheel and the little merry-go-round and
then it had the roller coaster," he said. "You could either build
a roller coaster that had a lift and then a turn after it or one
that had a drop and then just a turn to get right back.
"It
didn't have a plan for a loop, but it had extra pieces so I
designed the loop and a crossover. I made it a little bit taller,
too."
The
kit comes with 5,100 pieces and when he got through, Morris had
about 200 pieces left over, even with the additions. He found some
grass and trees from a model railroad set to complete the look.
Morris wants to go beyond just building models, he wants to become
a mechanical engineer and design real roller coasters.
"There aren't very many job offerings in that field, so I'll have
to work my way up to that," he said.
"I
knew I wanted to be some kind of engineer since I was a little
kid. It's kind of strange for me when people tell me they don't
know what they want to do because I've always known what I wanted
to do with my life."
But
it was his freshman year that it clicked and he knew he wanted to
work on roller coasters.
The
ironic part is, Morris was deathly afraid of roller coasters when
he was young.
"Now
I've gone across the country to ride them," he said.
Of
course, when he rides a roller coaster he's looking at all the
mechanics it took to build it.
"I've
never, ever been scared on a roller coaster because I know
everything about them," Morris said. "You're more likely to die
from having a toothpick in your mouth than you are on a roller
coaster."
His
favorite part of building the set was making the supports for the
roller coaster. Since he made it bigger than the plans, he had to
figure out how the beams would hold it up.
"I
learned this from one of the engineers out at L-3 who works with
the Robotics Team," Morris said. "He's a stress engineer and he
said that stress is like water. It flows the most direct path to
the ground. So I designed those the most efficient way I could."
The
amusement park will become a permanent part of the museum's
collection.
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