STEM Teams

FLL_EV3_StitchThe STEMTISTS

STEMPLOY sponsors out-of-school activities and career awareness programs to allow students opportunities to apply STEM skills, meet with Industry, and learn first-hand the types of jobs available in STEM fields.

The STEMPLOY sponsored first year robotics’ team, the STEMTISTS, won ‘Best Programming’ at the West Virginia FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) robotics tournament held on December 7th, 2013 at Fairmont State University. Hosted by Fairmont State University College of Science and Technology, more than 50 teams of middle school students from across the state participated for the largest science, technology, engineering and mathematics competition in West Virginia.

STEMPLOY’s students, all from Suncrest Middle School and ranging from grades 6-8, called their team the STEMTISTS: Taking Science to the Next Level.  “STEMPLOY is excited to have our team recognized for their hard work and efforts at FLL,” said Dr. Lynn Dombrowski, CEO of STEMPLOY, “The Morgantown Area Robotics (MARS) team was instrumental in helping our rookie team.”

STEM_TREK_RocketThe STEMTREK

STEMPLOY also sponsors a Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) club of middle school students that are designing and building their own rocket. The team, called the STEM TREK, is a group of rocket enthusiasts that will compete in a rocket build and launch challenge. The TARC competition is modeled around the aerospace industry’s design, fabrication and testing processes.  Similar to real-world experiences, like aerospace companies work within specific design parameters, every year the challenge requires teams to achieve the same basic mission-oriented goals of hitting a precise altitude, landing within a specific flight time window, and returning a raw egg (”the astronaut”) without cracking.

TARC gives students opportunities to apply their math and science skills to a real world project outside of the classroom.  For many students, this experience yields their first significant personal realization of how what they are learning in school is relevant to endeavors that are fun, challenging, and represent potential future career pathways.  Through TARC, students have discovered that they enjoy solving math and science problems in the context of resolving difficult and complex design issues.  Often TARC is also their first exposure to the aerospace industry.  They learn what aerospace engineers and skilled technical workers do and what it takes to become one of those professionals.

STEMPLOY is excited to bring this opportunity for STEM career-awareness to our student members. We hope to sponsor more teams in the future. Contact us if you would like to get yourself or your student(s) involved.

STEMTIST_RocketTeam