PASCO -- David Hohl brushed the hair out of his eyes and dropped a coin down a cardboard tube to trigger a chain of chemical and mechanical reactions.
For the next few moments, weights dropped, pulleys rolled, baking soda met vinegar in a gaseous combination, balloons inflated and mousetraps snapped.
Last in the chain, a helium-filled balloon floated up. Attached to it, a tag -- Tri-Cities Prep.
Much like that tag, the name of the Catholic high school in Pasco floated to the top of the rankings two weeks ago in Spokane at the Eastern regionals of the Science Olympiad. The competition is a mix of science fair, exams and impromptu challenges, put on by a nonprofit seeking to improve science education.
The students from Tri-Cities Prep took first place in their first outing and against much bigger schools.
The team now moves on to the state competition in Vancouver on April 16. Also competing will be Kamiakin High School, but not Delta, Kennewick or Southridge high schools, whose teams didn't place high enough at regionals.
Moses Lake High School took second place and Spokane's Central Valley High School came in third, followed by Kamiakin. The three other Tri-City schools landed in the bottom half of the list of 19.
Aside from Delta, all schools listed above have 1,400 to 1,900 students. Delta High School is much smaller, but its focus is science and technology.
Tri-Cities Prep is a nonparochial, private school with 154 students and a focus on high moral standards, according to its mission statement.
On Wednesday, its science team practiced for the next round of competition.
David, a 16-year-old junior, is the team's resident tinkerer. He fine-tuned the many moving parts of his Rube Goldberg machine, which is the name for a device that takes an inordinate amount of effort to perform a simple task -- in this case, releasing a balloon.
When he presented the crazy chain-reaction device at regionals, it was less with confidence than, well, faith.
"We had seen it work in pieces, but it never did it fully in practice," David said. "We were just praying."
Whether by prayer or ingenious design, the machine worked and the team placed second in that category. It also did very well in the 22 other events, winning four and placing in seven others.
One of the events is forensics, which is why Lauren Bryan and T.J. Hohl got to burn stuff Wednesday.
They were honing their chemical analysis skills. One step in determining the make-up of an unknown substance found at a crime scene is to burn a small sample of it, T.J. said.
"Each flame has a distinct color," he said. "Lithium burns bright red, potassium is lilac and boric acid is green."
This also is how fireworks' colors are designed, Lauren said. Then she burned a few strands of hair. "Yup, it's human," she said nonchalantly.
Other students in the room tested out the musical instruments they built from scratch or pored over the design of a small car propelled by mousetraps.
In the hallway, two teenagers worked on their Sumo robots, squat cars with tin shovels designed to push the other out of a ring marked on the floor.
Building wacky machines and playing with fire -- it all looked like a lot of fun. But the competition also includes oral and written exams, much like the ones most students dread at school.
"We take the tests as a (two-person) team," said Sebastian Coustou. "It's still fun because you're not alone. I can count on the other guy."
That's one of the strengths of this team of 13 teenagers, their coach said.
"They're motivated, but they're not mean and competitive about it," said Michelle Lumetta, a biochemist by trade. "They really treated this as a team challenge."
