On Saturday, Jan. 27, a group of 23 students from the MT Technology & Engineering Club (MTTEC) attended a local Technology Student Association (TSA) conference hosted by Conestoga Valley High School.
The conference included a large variety of events, both spontaneous and prepared, in which the students had the opportunity to compete.
One event involved creating a wooden truss bridge to maximize weight efficiency under specific specifications.
“There was a lot of testing and revising,” said bridge builder Cam Zuschmidt. “We had to pay attention to where things went wrong. I wanted to make sure the final product was good quality.”
Learning this process of continuous improvement was key to the challenge.
Qualifying for the state level, Zuschmidt hopes to further improve his bridge, using the designated materials well to give his solution a competitive edge.
The Blue Streaks also had a first place finish in the spontaneous technology problem solving competition. In this event, competitors were placed in a closed room and told to design a roller coaster with seven drops and three loops. Seniors Wyatt Huston and Lachlan Keith took this problem in stride, finishing first.
“I was very proud [of] what me and Wyatt put together,” said Keith. “A lot of people struggled—some even left the room—but we were able to complete it.”
MT students also competed in challenges including spontaneous CAD modeling, architectural design, transportation modeling and dragster design. The team also created board games and promotional design materials while giving presentations and capturing photographs.
The goal of TSA is to provide opportunities for students to explore a variety of careers in the STEM field while learning more about innovation through technology-based challenges.
“It’s a great opportunity for students to take what they’ve learned in class and apply it to competitions that reflect real-world scenarios,” said Ben Whitby, the MTTEC club advisor.
This year, the club wants to rebound after COVID took a hard hit on its participation. In his third year taking students to the competition, Whitby knows this fact well.
”After COVID, all the submissions were virtual, then last year we only took 13 kids. This year we had 26 students involved,” said Whitby.
Township’s success at the regional level now allows a number of students the opportunity to travel to the PA state competition.
