PIHS freshman trio wins state contest
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The U.S. Army announced the ninth-grade “Natural Disasters” team from Presque Isle is a state winner in the 13th annual eCYBERMISSION competition – one of several science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) initiatives offered by the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP).
eCYBERMISSION, sponsored by the U.S. Army and administered by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), is a web-based STEM competition that is free to students and designed to help build students’ interest and knowledge.
Students in grades six through nine are challenged with developing a solution to a real-world problem in their local community. Students compete on state, regional, and national levels for monetary awards, with national winning teams receiving up to $9,000 in U.S. EE Savings Bonds, valued at maturity.
Kiara Lyford, Max Bartley and Emma Willett worked together with team adviser Leslee Mahon to create a plan for all households in the United States to be provided with generators and disaster kits in case of a natural disaster. Through the eCYBERMISSION website, Natural Disasters created a mission folder—the official write-up of their project — which requires students to work through all steps of the scientific practice process before submitting to be evaluated and scored by a panel of virtual judges.
“We are incredibly proud of all the projects that came through this year. The judges faced no easy task given the caliber of work from these students,” said Dr. Juliana Texley, NSTA president. “We congratulate the state winners and commend all of the team advisors for engaging and empowering their students to make a real difference in the world around them.”
In the next round of the STEM competition, the regional winners will be determined by a panel of virtual judges who evaluate the top three teams from each region in each grade level. Sixty teams will compete for the honor of moving on to the National Judging and Educational Event (NJ&EE) in June. For the first time, all regional finalist teams will receive $1,000 in U.S. EE Savings Bonds, valued at maturity.
The final winning teams then compete at the national level and receive an all-expenses paid trip to the NJ&EE, taking place June 15-19 in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
