STEM

20 National Finalists Advance to eCybermission Competition

• By Richard Chang
• 05/09/16

Twenty national finalist teams have been chosen to advance in the 14th annual eCybermission competition, with its National Judging and Educational Event taking place June 20-24 in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

The web-based science, technology engineering and math (STEM) program is sponsored by the U.S. Army and administered by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). The competition is designed to inspire student interest in STEM by encouraging sixth- through ninth-grade students to develop solutions to real-world problems in their communities.

The national finalists were selected from a competitive group of 60 regional finalists by a panel of judges made of U.S. Army STEM professionals. Each team presented a live, four-minute presentation on its project and then participated in an in-depth question-and-answer session. The judges examined how well teams identified problems in their communities and used STEM to propose solutions.

“The U.S. Army is pleased with the amazing pool of talent displayed nationally from the national finalists in this year’s eCybermission competition,” said Louie R. Lopez, Army Educational Outreach Program cooperative agreement manager, in a prepared statement.

“These outstanding students recognized challenges that exist in their local communities and explored ways to solve them," said David Evans, NSTA executive director, also in a prepared statement. “We applaud the teams on their innovative projects. Their work is impressive.”

The teams will compete to win up to $9,000 in U.S. savings bonds in June. As national finalists, each team member will receive $2,000 in U.S. series EE savings bonds and an all-expenses paid trip to NJ&EE to compete for the first-place national award in their grade.

The projects are based on seven mission challenges: alternative sources of energy, the environment, food, health and fitness, force and motion, national security and safety, and robotics.