BRANDON — Otter Valley Union High School will be hosting its 32nd annual raft race along Otter Creek, a longstanding tradition in the school community, on Oct. 5. This year, the school is opening up the race to community members and alumni in an effort to continue forging the strong bond that is held between our school and the surrounding communities. 
In addition to opening up the raft race to the community, the raft race committee has created the inaugural Otter Valley Engineering Design Challenge, a competition that allows Otter Valley upperclassmen to compete in a real-world design and solution-based problem that aligns itself with the future Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which the school will be adopting next year. The raft race committee is beginning the primary stages to turn this competition into a scholarship program and will be accepting donations to help make that a reality.
The NGSS addresses a number of standards within all sciences, including engineering design. The core idea of the engineering design includes three component ideas: 1. Defining and delimiting engineering problems; 2. Designing solutions to those engineering problems by generating a number of possible solutions and evaluating them; and 3. Optimizing the design solution, which includes testing and refining the prototype until the benefits outweigh the negatives.
Those interested in participating can find more information on the raft race website by visiting OVUHS.org and finding the page under the athletics tab. For those businesses, community members or alumni interested in contributing a donation to the formation of the scholarship, send any and all donations to Otter Valley Union High School, 2997 Franklin St., Brandon, VT 05733. Any checks should be made out to OVUHS with Raft Race in the memo.
Rafts must be flat-bottomed, with two or more crew members. Safety vests are required. Motors are not allowed. For full contest rules and registration, go online to https://sites.google.com/a/rnesu.org/raftrace.