If you have been to the Exhibit Museum of Natural History (near North University and Geddes avenues near the University of Michigan's central campus) in the last few weeks on a Sunday, you've probably wondered, "What's with the kids on the balcony throwing things?" 

The answer is that it's Thurston Elementary School's Chopper Challenge Team.

On June 5, the Washtenaw County Science Olympiad (WESO) will hold its eighth event at Skyline High School. If you have a child in one of Ann Arbor's elementary schools, chances are you know all about the Science Olympiad already. And if you are a fellow coach for the Chopper Challenge, you too were faced with a challenge of finding an 18-foot drop to launch the choppers from!

The obvious resolution was to go to Skyline and take advantage of the actual drop site that will be used during the Olympiad. Alas, as a working mother trying to coordinate her schedule with other working parents of my son Josh's teammates, I couldn't find any good time to practice during the week. 

Ann Arbor schools are not open on the weekend, so we were in a bit of a pickle. 

That's when I got the idea about the third floor balcony at the natural history museum. My e-mail request circulated around to a few confused (but very helpful) museum staff members, who eventually graciously agreed to host our team. 

"This is an unusual request for us," Sarah Thompson, the program coordinator at the museum, wrote in response. "But we are going to grant you permission to hold your practices here." She made us promise to behave and mind the rules and the patrons.

So, every Sunday at 2:30 p.m. we are there to test the little rotary motion devices - the choppers. The scores for the choppers at the Olympiad will be based on the amount of time spent in the air and the angles of rotation. 

We are getting some pretty decent times out of them, and the drop we are using is not quite 18 feet, so, hopefully we'll be getting even better times at the actual event. If only we could figure out what to do with that darn vertical spin!

Josh, Alex and Nichole

I have the honor of working with three very intelligent, extremely opinionated and fun children and it's great to watch them become a team. I don't know if we are going to win, but we'll have a fun time trying. So, look out below!

Rita Shelley-Smith lives on the North Side of Ann Arbor with her husband and son. Rita and Greg are coaching two science Olympiad Teams this year - Water Rockets and Chopper Challenge, which basically means they have no life outside of those two activities. If you have any helpful hints about Chopper Challenge or Water Rockets, they would be very welcome!