Rivet students visit Washington for national TEAMS competition -

Special to The Message

Rivet High School students competed in the Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) national competition in Washington, D.C., from June 28 through July 2. This year’s competition theme was The Engineering Brain.

Rivet students and the adults accompanying them visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum during their trip to Washington, D.C. Standing in front of a retired NASA space shuttle are Brenda Donovan, left, Joe Cook, Mike Freeman, Janet Cook, Savannah Cook, Grant Freeman (standing behind Savannah), James Hancock, Cedric Schleiss, coach Beverly Adams, Noah Donovan, Jack Whitsett and Tammy Catt.
Submitted photo

Of the 909 schools that competed at the state levels for students in middle school, grades 9-10 and grades 11-12, only 171 competed at the nationals. Rivet was one of two Indiana schools with students competing. Teams came from as far away as Turkey for the event.

Rivet competed in the Varsity Division against teams from 74 other schools. Team members included Savannah Cook, James Hancock, Jack Whitsett, Noah Donovan, Grant Freeman and Cedric Schleiss. Beverly Adams was the coach.

The national competition included multiple components. A Digital Media project was due at the end of May. Its challenge was to create informative and persuasive digital media (e.g. website, infographic, video, digital billboard) to promote the advantages of allowing autonomous vehicles in the students’ home city.

The first competition at the national conference was the Prepared Presentation, which students completed ahead of time and presented in Washington. The presentation focused on designing a solution to a problem using Artificial Intelligence.

The Design and Build competition and the Mathematics Problems competition were held June 30. While some team members designed and programmed a robot to navigate city obstacles, other team members worked to solve 25 very challenging math problems.

During their visit, the students and Coach Adams attended Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, where the funeral for President John F. Kennedy was held.

Rivet students and the adults accompanying them visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum during their trip to Washington, D.C. Standing in front of a retired NASA space shuttle are Brenda Donovan, left, Joe Cook, Mike Freeman, Janet Cook, Savannah Cook, Grant Freeman (standing behind Savannah), James Hancock, Cedric Schleiss, coach Beverly Adams, Noah Donovan, Jack Whitsett and Tammy Catt. Submitted photo

A TEAMS judge, left, watches Rivet students James Hancock and Noah Donovan during the June 30 Design and Build Competition. Submitted photo

The group attended Mass in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. Shown are Savannah Cook, left, Noah Donovan, Grant Freeman, James Hancock, Cedric Schleiss and Jack Whitsett. Submitted photo