Mariner Middle School and Mariner High School brought home numerous awards from the recent Florida State Technology Student Association competition in Orlando.
Mariner High School TSA Advisor, VEX, FTC & FRC Robotics Coach and STEM instructor Adam Nowicki said with more than 1,000 people in attendance at the April competition and conference, it was intense.
He said since most chapters had already been through their own district wide competitions, only the best were sent to Orlando.
“There were very few newcomers, so most chapters have been competing for quite a few years,” Nowicki said.
Nowicki said some of the events that the students competed in were video game design, robotics, technology bowl, problem solving, chapter team, leadership strategies, technical drawing, global manufacturing and music production during the four-day competition that was held April 27 through April 30.
Mariner Middle School and Mariner High School brought home a first place trophy in Technology Problem Solving, a first place trophy in Technology Bowl, a third place trophy in Global Manufacturing and a third place trophy in Music Production.
“They also placed in the top 10 in the state in over 21 different events,” Nowicki said.
The students who participated in the technology problem solving portion of the conference were responsible for demonstrating their ability to use the skills that they have learned to develop and create a solution to a specific problem they were given.
The technology bowl engaged students in a written, objective test that they had to finish before they were given oral questions that they had to respond to, along with a head-to-head team competition.
The global manufacturing portion of the conference required a collaborative effort from the students, so they could design, manufacture and package a product that could be manufactured on a mass production level.
Original music was required by the students who participated in the music production portion of the conference. The music was designed to be played during the opening and closing sessions of the conference.
In preparation for the competition, Nowicki said the students studied proper meeting procedures via Roberts Rules of Orders, they designed, built and programmed a robot, they developed a video game, they quizzed themselves on hundreds of questions from STEM topics and they also learned how to produce and edit music on a computer.
Those students who attended the conference from Mariner Middle School included Mary Caldwell, Milica Jovanovic, Ethan Kuzyk and Juan Restrepo.
The students from Mariner High School who competed included Nicole Ballman, Ben Diamond, Chris Eck, Cory Fairfield, Zach Pickett, Robert Ralls, Gerilynn Rossman, David Schoenfeldt, Jasmine Singh, Megan Tedlie, Paul Teleweck, and Ryan Waldee.