GRHS Earns Honors at National TEAMS Engineering Competition

GRHS Earns Honors at National TEAMS Engineering Competition

On June 28 through July 2nd, a group of 6 students from Green River High School traveled to Washington D.C. to compete in the National TEAMS competition. Pictured left to right is: Will Allen, Matthew Pickering, Shelbee McFadden, Ashley Jensen, Dallin Kurth, and Hannah Thomas.

GREEN RIVER– From June 28 through July 2, a group of six Green River High School students traveled to Washington, D.C. to compete in the National TEAMS competition.

TEAMS, or Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science, is a national competition that helps middle and high school students discover their potential for engineering. The TEAMS competition is part of the Technology Student Association (TSA).

The GRHS students who made up the team included Ashley Jensen, Matthew Pickering, Hannah Thomas, Will Allen, Dallin Kurth, and Shelbee McFadden. GRHS science teacher, Matt Freze, was the TEAMS coach.

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GRHS Places 1st at State

To get a chance to compete at the national competition, the team had to first qualify at the state level, which they did in Laramie in February. GRHS placed first in two of the three events, and placed first overall in the state, earning their qualification to the national competition.

They took first in both the Design and Build and the Engineering Computations events. They took second in the Essay event. This not only earned them the number one rank in the state, but 18th in the nation in their division.

There are 12 divisions and they are based on the enrollment size of the school.

The National Competition

After earning a spot at Nationals, Freze said the team put in countless hours prepping and practicing for the events throughout the months leading up to the national competition.

At Nationals, there are four events: Digital Media, Research Presentation, Engineering Computations, and Design and Build.

For the research presentation, they had to put together a presentation looking at ways to use artificial intelligence (AI). The GRHS students did theirs on using AI to identify invasive species, and more specifically identifying burbot in the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Their project was titled “Bur-Bot”.

At the national competition, the team took 2nd place in the Design and Build portion of the contest.

“It’s a major accomplishment, especially for a group of students who went into this not knowing what to expect and competing against prestigious high schools and academic academies who compete at this event every year,” Freze said.

From left to right: Hannah Thomas, Shelbee McFadden, Matthew Pickering, Dallin Kurth, Will Allen, and Ashley Jensen pose with their poster presentation for the Bur-Bot.

Learning from the Experience

The TEAMS experience was a great one for the six students. They were able to see the ideas and research that other kids their age are coming up with across the nation.

“My favorite part of TEAMS was being able to look at other schools’ research projects and see the innovations that are possible through our generation,” Jensen said.

Pickering noted the the sharing of ideas with the other competitors as his favorite part of the experience. He enjoyed the innovative presentation portion of the competition.

“My co-presenter Shelbee and I got to talk about issues that mattered in our local community, but the audience was made of people from all across the nation. The exchange of ideas from all across the US felt empowering,” Pickering said.

Along with learning a lot from other competitors and gaining experience and knowledge from the competition, the students were also excited to be able to visit Washington, D.C.

“I felt very lucky to be able to see our nation’s capital. The competition was amazing, but being in a place with such a rich history and diverse culture was my favorite part,” McFadden said.

GRHS earned second place at the TEAMS National Competition in the Design and Build event.

Benefits for the Future

The students not only enjoyed their time working on their TEAMS project, but they also believe they will be able to carry what they learned from the experience with them in their next steps.

Jensen said both the connections she made and the engineering knowledge she gained throughout the competition will benefit her greatly in her future.

“Both when fundraising and at a summit that large, I was able to meet people and become more familiar with the field of engineering,” Jensen said.

Pickering learned how to collaborate within a team, which he believes will be especially beneficial as he starts college in the fall.

“I’ve taken away improved teamwork and communication skills for sure. I’m headed off to college for the 2019-2020 academic school year, and knowing how to work together on a project with peers invested in the same content will help out a ton,” Pickering said.

McFadden believes she had a lot of personal growth through working on the project and learned to compromise and work with others.

“I’ve grown as an individual massively due to this competition. On our team, each person is very intelligent and opinionated. It took a lot of time and effort to find compromise between our ideas in order to create the best final product,” McFadden said. “Ultimately, what was taught to me about coding and AI was second to what I learned about collaboration.”

The GRHS TEAMS team was able to go to the national competition with the help of a few generous donors. The team thanks Ciner, Tata Chemicals, Genesis Alkali, and the University of Wyoming’s Engineering and Applied Science Department for their generous donations in the team’s fundraising efforts.