Pa. National Guard supports 2019 Governor’s STEM competition

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Zane Craig | Sgt. Benjamin Flanders, a recruiter with Company B, Recruiting and Retention Battalion, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, conducts a breakout session with Pennsylvania high school students participating in the 2019 Governor’s STEM Competition May 10 at the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg, Pa. The students were able to participate in the breakout sessions, where they used STEM-related puzzles and clues to open locked boxes and breakout the information inside like in an escape room, between presentations of their inventions before panels of judges. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Zane Craig)  

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES

05.16.2019

Story by Sgt. Zane Craig 

Joint Force Headquarters - Pennsylvania National Guard

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Several members of the Pennsylvania National Guard supported the 2019 Governor’s STEM competition May 10 at the Dixon University Center here with a breakout session experience.

In the fifth annual competition, 144 student teams designed and built useful inventions using their Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills and presented them before a panel of judges.

Between presentations, the students were able to participate in the breakout sessions, where they used STEM-related puzzles and clues to open locked boxes and breakout the information inside like in an escape room.

“It was a very engaging activity for us to do in our downtime, it kept us thinking while still being fun, not like school work,” said Trey Blystone, from Fairview High School in Northwest Pennsylvania. His team’s entry was a wheel well heater, partially inspired by recent record snowfall events.

According to Sgt. Benjamin Flanders, a recruiter with Company B, Recruiting and Retention Battalion, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, the breakout session utilizes the students’ critical thinking skills, teamwork and problem solving to break into the boxes they’re presented with. His scenario involved a “meltdown” at Three Mile Island nuclear plant. The students’ mission is to help survivors trapped inside by figuring out clues, which include the use of Morse code, black light, red lenses, math problems and the periodic table of elements.

“I would say your break out activities are spot on, they’re excited about doing it, they’re applying their knowledge, and the way you all designed it directly applies to the kind of work the Guard does,” said Judd Pittman, special consultant to Pennsylvania’s secretary of education on STEM.

The Pennsylvania National Guard has been part of the STEM competition since its inception five years ago. Initially the Guard brought activities like the climbing wall, but recently the Pennsylvania Department of Education has begun to partner with the National Guard STEM initiatives and gaining a better understanding of the STEM-related opportunities in the Guard like engineering and computer science. Judd said keeping the partnership going has been relatively easy because both sides are focused on the same goal, developing essential STEM skills in Pennsylvania’s students.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please contact Lt. Col. Keith Hickox [phone], or e-mail [e-mail]

• Date Taken: 05.16.2019
• Date Posted: 05.22.2019 12:47
• Story ID: 322593
• Location: HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, US