STEM challenge builds skills in engineering, teamwork

Seven students in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Club represented LRHS in the annual Bi-County STEM Challenge (BCSC) on Monday.

The team, which included Cole Cameron, Grace St. John, Trinity Bonita, Spencer Gering, Cinthia Guizar, Emma Aldrich, and alternate Tamera Wolf, competed against groups from Wilbur, Odessa, Harrington and Sprague.

BCSC includes two STEM challenges. The first is designated as a “warm up,” allowing students to form groups with representatives from other schools to engage in a short and fast paced challenge.

Cameron was among the winning group in the first challenge, tasked with innovating a device that hovered above a box fan for as long as possible.

Each year, the main event divides students up into their schools, providing them a two-hour time frame to innovate a device worthy of competition.

This year, teams were tasked with converting a remote-controlled car into a boat or submarine capable of navigating a pool obstacle course. The LRHS team earned second place, falling short to Odessa.

Despite the loss, the students enjoyed the opportunity.

Guizar explained, “The reason I wanted to sign up for BCSC is because I wanted to push myself and interact with other people with the same interests as me.”

She continued, “It lived up to my expectations. It was a ton of fun and a learning experience.”

“The BCSC is a fun way to compete with other schools while incorporating science, technology, engineering, and math,” reflected Gering. “That’s why I decided to sign up.”

“It exceeded my expectations because it wasn’t just about building,” he continued, “it was about problem solving and learning to cooperate.”

Cameron said, “I wanted to have some competition and try something new.”

BCSC delivered in this respect; all of the team members cite their favorite part of the day as watching the boats compete in the obstacle course.

“My favorite part about the day was definitely seeing our boat in action,” recalled Gering. “Even though it didn’t win, seeing the project that we built actually work was satisfying.”

Unsurprisingly, the STEM challenge was not without difficulty.

“The hardest part about today would have to be the construction part, due to all the different ideas in the group,” Guizar remembered, adding, “I learned that sometimes simplicity is key.”

Similarly, Gering said, “The hardest part was compromising and tweaking our design after realizing it wouldn’t work. However, we put our heads together and worked everything out.”

“We overcame our doubts about our boat and due to this, we were proud of the work we did,” stated Cameron.

Given the success at BCSC, the team is interested in beginning a local engineering challenge within the LRHS STEM Club.

Of the idea, Guizar explained, “We should definitely have a STEM challenge within our club because it’ll give all the people who weren’t able to participate exposure to what the competition is like.”

“It would also work well as a preparation for the actual STEM challenge,” she added.

Gering also believes that the local STEM Challenge would be productive in the future: “I think it would be a great activity because there are plenty of kids in our STEM club that wanted to compete at BCSC but couldn’t.”

Facing challenges in STEM helps students gain experience in engineering and realize their potential for the future.

Of the LRHS students who would be able to participate in a local STEM challenge, Gering concluded, “I’m sure a lot of them are talented engineers.”