Penn TEAMS students qualify for Nationals

A total of 39 Penn High School students have qualified for the TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Math and Science) Nationals.

 

Coached by Penn Math Instructor Becky Tagliaferri, the Penn students will compete in the Nationals in Atlanta, Ga., from June 22-25.

 

Tingyu Lu and her team – Amy Bernard, Yewon Oh, Michelle Kwok, Riya Patel, Ian Baker, Zach Simon and Chelsea Chen – won the state championship in the 11/12 division.

 

David Wang’s 9/10 team of Gabby Haywood, Joey Meier, Peter Tiebout, Olivia Venditti, Ryan Ludwig and Sydney Domal placed third in the state.

 

“This competition reflects the strong STEM education we have here at Penn High School,” Tagliaferri said. “This is our fourth state championship in a row and out of the six years there has been a national competition under the TSA umbrella, we have excelled all six years and have brought home several Top 10 placements every year!  Penn is a powerhouse at TEAMS national competitions.”

 

Other national qualifiers included the 11/12 team of Nick Casetti, Alyssa McNarney, Amanda George, Sunny Sun, Elisabeth Casetti, Dhruv Khanna, Corey Wang and Matt Rach; the 11/12 team of Leah Ingle, Sage Marchand, Siddarth Das, Sabrina Kurian, Trang le, Moon Joy, Emma Doshi and Sydney Doshi; and the 9/10 team of Grace Waddell, Allison Nguyen, Sharon Ni, Anna VanAvermaete, Janusha Cooray, Madeline Calvin, Julia Son and Anna Wong.

 

In the TEAMS competition, regional scores are taken from tests and a design build. Those scores are compared with scores from around the state to determine state champions and national qualifiers.

 

A total of 250 students representing 32 teams competed in the Indiana event.

 

Penn’s state championship TEAMS group is ranked No. 4 in the nation.

 

According to Tagliaferri, the event encompasses what engineers do in their jobs. There is an 80-question multiple choice math test, a paper that must be written, and a design/build portion. All of these are centered around the theme this year of "Engineering the Enviroment,"  narrowed by eight topics that the students research.