TEAMS National Competition 2016

I am an avid lover of all fields of science and a participant in STEM activities. This school year, I joined a national organization called TEAMS, which is an engineering competition. My team and I participated at the state level last March, and did fairly well - well enough to qualify for the national competition in Nashville. I became the captain of a different team (a team of six wild and crazy teenagers, but I love them all) and for the month of June, we prepared for countless hours everyday for the national competition, which took place a few days ago. The team dynamic evolved over time; we started out as a divided, disorganized group of adolescents, to an open-minded, motivated unit of hard workers. 

For this competition, we were assigned to write an essay over optogenetics and create a prepared presentation and poster over human colonization innovations. Lastly, we took part in the problem solving section, which was composed of a design challenge and math problems. We did not rank for the presentation nor the problem solving section, but our essay was ranked among the top 10 in the nation! I'll be honest; my team and I did not expect this at all. As an award, we each received a medal on stage, which has the words "National Finalist" written on it. 

In addition to participating in the competition, we explored the deep country roots of Nashville and went zip lining! Over all, I'm proud of my team and I can't wait for more opportunities like this.