P-H-M schools sweep top awards at Trine’s TEAMS competition

Teams from the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation took the top awards at the annual Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition on Feb. 18 at Trine University.

The event, which included 200 students on 25 middle and high school teams, is a qualifier for the TEAMS national competition, to be held during the national Technology Student Association (TSA) conference June 27 to July 1 in Nashville, Tennessee.

During the two parts of the contest conducted at Trine, the teams, consisting of eight students, completed a multiple-choice test and a design/build challenge, where they worked on and tested their solution to an assigned project. A third portion of the competition was conducted at the schools.

The theme for this year’s TEAMS competitions is “Engineering in the Wild.”

The Trine event awards travelling trophies to the teams with the highest scores on the multiple-choice test in Divisions I (11th- and 12th-grade teams) and II (ninth- and 10th-grade teams).

The “B” Team from Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana, was the champion in Division I, taking the John J. McKetta Outstanding Junior Engineering Team Award. Team members were Jayden Bell, Oliver Hu, Evan Li, Allison Nguyen, Sharon Ni, Neda Stancheva, Aidan Sweeney and Grace Waddell.

The Penn High School “D” Team won Division II and the Mike McKetta Outstanding Junior Engineering Team Award. Team members included Alexander Du, Salem Fitwi, Art Haines, Jed Kim, Luca Nijim, J.R. Roach, Anitej Waghray and Matthew Zhang.

Both teams were coached by Adam Beck.

The “A” team from Discovery Middle School in Granger, Indiana, won the middle school division. Team members were Joshua Kim, Cameron Poznanski, Bella Schaetzle, Noah Schafer, Jaden Shim, Jayden Wang, Michelle Yen and Felix Zhang. The team is coached by Scott Vandygriff.

The TEAMS competition is hosted by Trine University’s McKetta Department of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering.

Top photo: The Penn High School “B” Team: From left, Coach Adam Beck, Neda Stancheva, Allison Nguyen, Sharon Ni, Grace Waddell, Jayden Bell, Aidan Sweeney, Oliver Hu and Evan Li.