Science students at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School were tasked with creating a ball launcher for the March madness engineering challenge.

Runners-up: Casey McAndrews, Samantha Hargy, and Zach Bresnick (not pictured).

Students constructed backboards and hoops with recycled boxes, and had 45 minutes to create launchers from cardboard, wood sticks, rubber bands, foam, plastic and tape. The students then had one minute to launch as many balls as possible to try to score baskets through the hoops they constructed.

James Kelliher, Brahmin Thurber-Carbone and Chris Aring came in first with 20 points, followed by Casey McAndrews, Samantha Hargy, and Zach Bresnick with 16 points. The team of Adam Bilodeau, Anders Nelson, and Lucas Dutton came in third with 11 points.

The monthly engineering challenge, led by science teacher Natalie Munn and other faculty, encourages students to work as a group to experience the engineering process as they complete a design challenge.