This event involves a great deal of planning and effort over a time period of a few months or longer. For the purposes of this document, I will divide the implementation of a SC event into three phases: creative, testing and deployment.

Creative

There are two creative aspects to creating a Science Chase event: the plot and the individual challenges. Alone, the individual challenges are intended to be entertaining and educational. When tied together into a coherent event with an adventurous purpose, they bring problem solving and adventure together in a memorable, high impact experience. This concept is best illustrated by examples.

Challenges

Example One: Holographic Map

In the holographic map challenge, participants assemble three parts of a map. When combined, the team is directed to the next location (in one storyline, the location of a crashed satellite).

Information 1: Symbol. For example, α

This was provided in an earlier challenge as a clue for use in the future.

Information 2: the participants earlier were directed to a secret meeting location with an “informant” who provides the participant with a standard piece of paper containing the outline of four corners and an “x”. Such as:

[INSERT DIAGRAM]

Once the participants arrive at the challenge, they find holographic plates and a laser. By exploring different areas of the holographic plates, the participants can produce different maps. A likely “discovery” they will make is that shining the laser at different angles also produces different images and maps. Participants see firsthand through discovery that a massive quantity of information can be stored in holograms! The correct map is denoted by the symbol chosen above, α.

To use the map to find the next location (e.g. the location of a hidden device, or another plot device), the team needs to use the sheet of paper described above, with the outline of a box and an “x”. The holographic map can be projected onto a surface close by (making a small scale map) or a couple meters away (making a large scale map). The defined corners on the paper recovered earlier ensure the intended scale is used. The “x” marks the location on the projected map where the team needs to go next.

Example Two: Electromagnet & Debris

In this challenge, participants arrive at a site where something has happened, resulting in a field of dangerous debris (i.e. a satellite crashed, something exploded, etc.). Specific debris pieces are of interest, and must be removed from a distance. Using materials found in an (plot device… could be an emergency management stash nearby?), the participants build an electromagnetic collection device.

An electromagnet is created using a ferrite rod, insulated wire and a power source, and placed at the end of a pole. The easiest way to do this is to have a battery pack (which is safer, given that contact between the batteries and wires becomes a matter of alligator clips) located near the handle and wires taped along the pole to the end where the electromagnet is fixed using duct tape.

In past uses of this challenge, special storage containers were emphasized in the plot line. Participants were expected to build the device, use it to pick up “key pieces of secret technology” and place those pieces in radiation-shielded containment boxes.

Example Three: 16-story high “egg-drop”

Egg-drops have been a classic staple of high school physics classrooms for ages. In 2009, the Science Rendezvous Science Chase involved a challenge which was essentially a 16-story high egg drop from the physics tower.

Earlier in the event, participants used a security card to enter into a secure laboratory and remove a piece of physically and intellectually sensitive technology. This device has been tagged such that it will set off alarms if someone tries to carry it out the building’s doors.

The solution is:

1. Go to the roof
2. Create a container that will keep the device safe from a high velocity impact
3. “Blend in” with a group of graduate students performing a gravity experiment using a zip-line attached from the roof to the ground below (where there is a large area set aside and monitored for safety reasons).
4. Send the package with the device along the zipline to members of the team waiting below, under the guise of the gravity experiment.
5. Return the device to >>Insert Your Institution’s Name here<< Intelligence Officers at SCHQ (or whatever other plot)

Other examples (may be detailed at a later date):

• Fourier Optics Rail: use of a laser and a series of optics (filters, lenses) to decode a slide which looks to be noise (in fact contains a symbol necessary to identify the correct map or other document later in the event). This involved taking the fourier transform of the noise image to recover the information, but participants could essentially “play” with the positions and content of the optics rail to make it work.
• Steganography (use of codes and hidden messages) has been applied through associating words or letters with functional groups and providing messages as a series of chemical reactions or simply lists of compounds, use of invisible inks, collection of strange symbols to be decoded at the end using a cipher.
• Water clock: building a well-tuned timing device consisting of various materials (jugs with variety of holes, tubes, tape).
• Puzzel/Electric Circuit/Art – rearrange panels fit together using magnets on each side to complete a circuit (according to artistically encoded circuit map on surface).
• Creating a compass, navigating series of orienteering instructions.
• Operating a rover through a maze, recovering and examining a specimen of ___?
• Creating an air-cannon (using a plastic garbage can and a membrane such as plastic sheets) to dislodge targets from a perched position.