Nearly 600 students in the Conroe Independent School District put their engineering skills to the test Saturday afternoon at the annual SCI://TECH Junior High Engineering Design Competition at Moorhead Junior High School.

Hundreds of seventh- and eighth-graders pit their small, motorized vehicles in a race against the clock and each other. The group also included students from several private schools in The Woodlands.

“These kids are the best and brightest in our district,” Science teacher and event coordinator Larry Moore said. “You won’t find a brighter group of 12- and 13-year-olds anywhere else.”

The event is sponsored by the Education for Tomorrow Alliance, which works with community businesses and others to help provide judges, funding and food for the competition, Moore said.

The competition itself has been held in the district for over 10 years, and this is the fifth year the event was held at Moorhead Junior High School, Moore said.

The students compete in teams of two or three, sometimes adopting their own themes, and construct small, motorized robots that must navigate a small field and flip switches for points in a limited amount of time.

He likened it to being the science students’ own Super Bowl, in terms of anticipation.Moore said students started researching for their creations as early as September 2012 and spent “hours upon hours” working to get their machines just right for the competition.

“The only thing we provide them is the motor and some wires,” Moore said. “They have to design it and built it all on their own.”

Moore also said it was a good way to show off the school itself to those who otherwise wouldn’t see it, and having such a large amount of students under one roof with few issues is a testament to their maturity and abilities.

“If they weren’t the best kids in the district, we couldn’t even think of holding something like this,” Moore said.

Monica Bomkamp Enia, an EfTA representative, called the competition a wonderful way for students to come together and celebrate their love of science.

The competition has historically received volunteers and funds from Baker Hughes to put on the event, even providing the computer program to keep track of students’ scores, Enia said.

“For a lot of them, they see it as cultivating their future workforce,” Enia said.

Many students expressed interest in continuing engineering and science studies into high school and perhaps beyond. Nick Roush and Samuel Evans, members of the “Brain Stormers” team, said they enjoyed the competition and hope to move on to other events in high school.

“It’s been really fun so far,” Evans said. “It’s a really great thing to do when you want to either have fun or want to see if you could really do anything in this career,” Evans said.

“It’s a great way to express creativity and effectiveness at the same time,” Roush said.

Keaton McGuirk, a seventh-grader from McCullough Junior High School, also wants to continue studying engineering in high school.

“This has not only been a lot of fun, but it’s also been challenging,” McGuirk said.

Source: The Woodlands Villager, photo credit: Eric Swist