Penn High School’s TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science) participants recently competed in their national competition. The competition ran from June 29th to July 1st at the Texan Gayford Resort in Grapevine, Texas. Here, two teams from Penn competed against other TEAMS teams from around the country.
At the regional competiton, Penn’s teams of 8 were placed at a table and given a packet of 80 multiple choice questions. Those 80 questions were split into 8 sections, based on the topic of the question. The 8 members of the team each answered the 10 questions in their designated section.
The teams had been working towards the first place trophy at regional competition since the begining of the acedemic school year. The preparation for national finals, on the other hand, couldn’t begin until April, when the competition material was released.
Penn sent two senior division teams of 8 to the national competition. At nationals, the task was to complete three parts: a written section, a presentation, and a problem-solving section. The teams submitted their papers for review before the conference itself. The presentation was formal and based on the theme of this year’s competition, “The Power of Engineering.” The problem solving section consisted of mathematics and building/engineering wind mill blades. The entirety of the competion was centered around renewable energy, or the “Power of Engineering.”
“For regionals it was a lot more simple,” says Audrey Murray, a TEAMS participant and a member of the class of 2016. “Given that everyone on my team was in a higher level math and science class, we knew a lot of what would be thrown our way. All we had to do was research all the topics they gave us.” According to Murray, the national competition was “a lot more difficult than the other competition.”
But even with the increased difficulty of their competition, the two Penn teams came out near the front of the pack. The 11/12 Team 1 placed 3rd in Problem Solving and the 11/12 Team 2 placed 2nd in the written competition.
After months of preparation for this competition, the win felt “rewarding,” said Murray. “It felt like our hard work paid off.”
Congratulations to both of Penn’s TEAMS teams for an excellent preformance in their compeition.
11/12 Team 1: Stephanie Tapp, Disha Waghray, Rachel Susler, Rocki Villano, Megha Devaraj, Kanika Arora, Alice Kwak, and Neal Patel.
11/12 Team 2: Josh Zhao, Rachel Casetti, Nick Casetti, Jack Bao, Muqsit Buchh, Audrey Murray, Chris Yun, and Baker Nasser.
Evelyn Gregory 
Avery Irving 
Jiyoon Moon