Ride Engineering Competition
For 3 of the last 4 years, TEA@ND has participated in the Ride Engineering Competition. In this competition, we are tasked with designing and building a scale model themed attraction. Our attraction must meet certain g-force and cost requirements as well as operate for a complete eight hours. Pictured below are our three attractions we have submitted: Dr Tremble’s, Tombstone Tumble, and Blizzard Lizzard
Turn ND Into a Theme Park 2020
Competing in their TEA Cup teams, our members created a project based on the idea of Turning Notre Dame into a theme park! Each team presented virtually to a panel of alumni judges!
TEA Cup (Retired)
To foster community and healthy competition in our club, we created the TEA Cup, a club wide competition where our members take part in theme park related challenges in our club meetings to earn points! For actions such as winning club meeting trivia, bringing a friend to their first meeting, and other accomplishments outlined in our rules, members can earn point for their team in the competition. There are four teams, named after the four closest theme parks to Notre Dame (Indiana Beach, Six Flags Great America, Cedar Point, and Michigan’s Adventure). Every member is sorted into a team at the first club meeting they attend. The winning team at the end of the year gets to choose the park where we take our final park trip of the year.
LEGO KingDome 2020
Yes folks, we all waited with bated breath for it, the greatly anticipated: Lego KingDome Build! This year was our second annual build, a tradition we plan to continue in the future. This build we were able to reach out and invite the families of the local South Bend community to come and join us in our endeavor. From faculty bringing their kids to families who found us in the local newspaper, we received an even greater response than expected! We were able to build something incredible on this day. Though the Legos were only temporary, we hope we were able to help create memories that last.
Check out our Gallery for more pictures!
Check out our Timelapse here!
TEAscape Room
Over the past year, our club has worked on a long term project— an escape room. Bringing together skillsets found throughout the club, we have planned and built a portable escape room. This experience is offered to other student groups and residences as a team-building exercise and an opportunity for our members to operate the escape room and interact face to face with its users.
Pen Pals (Retired)
As awareness of this industry grows, more and more students have the desire to jump in. Yet, as student awareness is still developing, it is sometimes hard to connect with others pursuing the Themed Entertainment Industry. Therefore, our past Vice President, Jason Wanamaker, created Pen Pals. Pen Pals is a cross-university initiative that seeks to connect students throughout the country.
Students who signed up for this opportunity were sorted into groups of 3-4 people, each from different universities, majors and interests. Each month, engaging industry-related topics are given to these groups as talking points. However, each group can choose to build their relationships as much as they desire beyond this. These groups are very useful for learning about and from others’ experiences in school, competitions, internships, etc.
LEGO KingDome 2019
On a snowy mid-February day the LEGO Club of Notre Dame and TEA@ND came together to design and build their very own LEGO theme park. The build lasted 15 hours and used over 25,000 pieces. A few pieces of media capturing the project are displayed here, but make sure to check out the Gallery for more pictures!
In Club Competitions
In the fall of 2018, during one club meeting, members placed in groups were tasked with brainstorming a solution to the 2016 Disney Imaginations Competition prompt:
Design a traveling experience that will tour small towns across the United States so families who do not have the opportunity to travel to a Disney Park can have a Park experience. This temporary venue will operate in each community for two to three days, should take no more than a day to set up and break down, and embody the kind of family entertainment that Walt envisioned when he first built Disneyland.
The teams were given 15 minutes to put together their idea and a quick presentation. After developing their story to the best of their ability, the teams were given 2 minutes each to present. Below is one team presenting their initial concept for the prompt.
2018 Turn Notre Dame into a Theme Park Competition
Congratulations to Marissa Brennan and Margaret Swiecicki for winning the competition with their submission “Irish Crossroads”!
