by Sean McGarry
Congratulate our TSA members on their TEAMS experience.
Retrieved from tsaweb.org/teams/resources/annual-theme-and-scenario-topics---placeholder
On March 3rd, 16 BTHS students competed in the TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science) competition. In the Grades 9-10 Division, the competitors were the following: Sanika Bane, Kate Shum, Madison MacKenzie, Moniayo Mabogunje, Adwaith Hariharan, Aaron Kahn, Sean McGarry, Alex Ha, Kyle Arend, Kathleen Castner, Angelica Dadda, and Alexander Rausch. In the Grades 11-12 Division, the group was composed of Sydney Yan, Shivani Patel, Christopher Liding, and Simren Shah. The competition was broken into three distinct parts: an essay, multiple choice questions, and a design/build challenge. Each category is worth 80 points, thus the total score is based out of 240 points. The three teams with the highest cumulative scores in each state advance to the national level, which unfortunately is taking place virtually this year.
Essay Category: This year’s essay topic revolved around the integration of artificial intelligence to aid in the imbalance of supply and demand currently shocking the economy. Students were given until February 25th to work in teams of four to construct an essay of 1,000 words or less that served as a conclusive analysis to the prompt at hand. In the opinion of our omniscient author, this was the easiest task, as there was a substantial amount of time to research and draft ideas before the final copy was to be submitted.
Multiple Choice Category: Students were required to answer 40 multiple choice questions in the course of 90 minutes. The test is split into four sections, each with a different mathematical concept. Overarching scenarios included Animals in the Pandemic, Artificial Intelligence for Human Monitoring, Communicating in a Pandemic, Design, Epidemiology and Contact Tracing, Engineering Drones for Contactless Deliveries, Engineering Vaccine Distribution, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, and Working Engineer in Quarantine. Teams were sent the test via Dropbox, and one person was assigned to input the answers into the testing system. Students of the same team could communicate with each other through Google Meets, Zoom, etc. A proctor made sure that all questions were answered in accordance with academic integrity standards. Overall, the tremendous ratio of reading material to questions made this part of the competition extremely difficult, but still manageable nonetheless.
Design/Build Challenge: In the author’s opinion, this was the most fun, yet most stressful, portion of the whole competition. TEAMS were given a total of two hours and 15 minutes to assemble a prototype linked to the issue at hand. A fixed amount of materials were distributed to each team ahead of time by Mr. Hercek. The Grades 9-10 assignment was to design a transportation device of low-cost that could lift paper towels (mimics robot with masks) one-by-one and escort them to a set target box. At the end, one person per team had to film themself taking part in a trial, in which the goal was to move five paper towels to the target box in 90 seconds or under.
How do you study for this competition? As a whole, there is not a great deal of material to read in order to prepare for this competition. It does not require you to utilize any independent resources or equations other than those supplied in the test booklet. The main way in which groups typically study is by going through the eight scenarios to make themselves aware of the annual theme. If applicable, students could even do research prior to the administration of the tests to figure out ongoing issues in our world as a challenge, feeling ready to combat them, if asked. The essay should be done as a team in advance, so there is no need to worry about it on the day of the competition.
Why should I do TEAMS next year? TEAMS is an amazing opportunity to employ your knowledge in several critical areas of science and technology. It can spawn interest to a certain field, and to the greatest extent, bring classmates closer together. The author’s group competed for the first time, and firmly believed that it was a great way to focus on their interests, while also collaborating as an efficient team.
So what’s next in the world of TSA? In the next month, all of the general TSA conference competitions, both prepared and live, will have been conducted. Both state and national competitions will also be organized through a virtual format.
If you would like to learn more about TSA, both as a club and an organization, please visit tsaweb.org/competitions-programs/tsa/high-school-competitions.