Hiya Scott, hope you're enjoying the course.
Its been a good 5 years now but I also did the good old design and build with the balsa wood and our group didnt actually do too badly in it. The best advice I can offer you for it is to try and not 'over engineer' it and just concentrate on making it sturdy enough but not too heavy at the same time, and dont take it too seriously! If I remember correctly you're given 3 times to launch it down the lecture hall, well the case in 90% of the groups in my year is that they throw it the first time and it crashes into a wall or row of snoozing students and breaks up and they therefore dont even get to throw it a second or third time. It wont actually matter what your design is at the end of the day, or whether your groups glider flies the farthest or a couple of metres - as long as in your individual logbooks and reports you outline the reasons why you choose that particular design, other designs that you had perhaps considered and reasons why they were rejected in favour for yours. Also a good lessons learned section and any changes you would make to it, if you had more time etc. This approach will prepare you well for later years when the design projects are much more involved and technical.
Have fun
