Tyler Burgess of Franklin, Virginia, won the 2016 National Youth Lawn Tractor Challenge.
This event is designed to give youth participating in the lawn tractor-focused educational programs and opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the areas of lawn care, business management, and lawn and garden tractor operation, maintenance and safety, while competing with other youth. Tyler had to complete a written exam, identify parts, and demonstrate safe operation of a lawn tractor through an obstacle course to finish the contest on top.
The event is part of the the National 4-H Engineering Challenge. It is the premier contest within the National 4-H program that allows talented youth from around the country to assemble together to showcase their knowledge and skills in a variety of individual and team-based engineering contests and activities. While this event has become increasingly focused on engineering, traditional events, such as lawn tractor operation, have been retained and continue to play a big part in the challenge.
The Engineering Challenge was hosted by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In addition to the competitive events and challenges, in keeping with the engineering theme, tours of the Caterpillar and Subaru manufacturing plants were provided so that the participants were able to see in practice various engineering principles as they relate to design, manufacturing, or other types of production of goods and services. The group also visited the Mechanical and Agricultural engineering programs on the campus of Purdue University.