On March 6th, the Fannin County High School Engineering Team competed at The Georgia Institute of Technology. The Engineering TEAMS competition is a national competition to encourage students to engage in Technology, Engineering, Math, and Science.Last year, the Fannin 9th and 10th grade team qualified to compete at the National Event, and finished in the top ten nationally in the oral presentation competition. They attended the national competition in Washington, DC in June.

This year’s team competed against teams from across the state of Georgia. The competition is broken down into three areas:
1 – A multiple choice test on math, science, and engineering related to the topic of energy
2 – A group engineering design challenge
3 – A written essay competition where the students submit 4 essays on energy

You can learn more about TEAMS at http://tsaweb.org/TEAMS_UNITE

This year, Carly Hellerstedt and Tyler Wheat were on the winning team in the Engineering Design Challenge. Students were given a bag of miscellaneous materials and instructed to create a “Rube Goldbergh Machine.” Students were given one hour to design, build, and test the structure. Rube Goldbergh machines are devices of curiosity, where mechanical energy is transferred from one device to another activating various components. Ultimately, the machine was required to pop a balloon. Students were awarded points based on the number of unique materials they used and the number of separate mechanical devices they incorporated into the device.

Later in the year, the team will learn how they placed in the overall competition. Based on their performance, it is possible that they will again qualify for the national competition. The national competition will be held in Dallas, TX in June.

I am really proud of the students who attended the competition. It was a great experience for them to be able to compete with schools from across the state. The growth in Engineering careers is well documented, and I am always excited to see students interested in pursuing the engineering pathway.

Photos:
1 – Alex Chastain, Colton Carpenter, and Ben Bruce
2 – Carly Hellerstedt and Tyler Wheat working on their winning project
3 – Carly Hellerstedt and Tyler Wheat (left side) accepting their awards for 1st place
4 – Group Photo in front of Tech Tower at Georgia Tech
L to R Alex Chastain, Carly Hellerstedt, Tyler Wheat, Edith Mares, Willie Baldwin, Colton Carpenter, Hunter Alexander (Back), Uriah Giet, Ben Collins, Michael Turpin, Ethan Taylor, Christian Sauls, Ben Bruce, Wesley Lim, Britton Quintrell, Jordan Newman, Morgan Patton
5 – Michael Turpin, Willie Baldwin, Colton Carpenter, Edith Mares, and Alex Chastain
6 – Morgan Patton, Britton Quintrell, and Hunter Alexander working on their project