The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Colonial students perform well at regional TSA competition
Seventy Colonial School District students – 36 from Plymouth Whitemarsh High School (PWHS) and 34 from Colonial Middle School (CMS) – qualified for the Technology Students Association (TSA) state competition based on their performances at the regional competition on February 10. District students placed first in nine events, second in six events and third in nine events.
The high school team comprised of Dhruv Agarwal, Shreya Bhutani, Adam Friedman, Karen Minecci, Casey Sharpe and Liza Smaliak placed first in Scientific Visualization. In this event, students use either 2D or 3D computer graphics tools and design processes to communicate, inform, analyze and/or illustrate a STEM topic, idea, subject or concept.
The PWHS group of Evan Chan, Brock Etzel, Scott Horry, Kevin Shi and Will Stanczak placed first in Webmaster. The event asks students to design, build and launch a website that features the school’s career and technology/engineering program, the TSA chapter and the chapter’s ability to research and present a given topic pertaining to technology.
The team of Sean Beausoleil, Harrison Glantz, Thomas Longo and Nick Maslij placed second in Robotics, while Victoria Brach, Luke Gaumer, Abby Minecci, Karen Minecci, Smaliak and Danny Symnoski were third in Biotechnology Design.
Individually, Bhutani placed first in Future Technology Teacher, while Smaliak placed third in the same event. Bhutani was also third in Prepared Presentation. Alex Prusky was first in the Technology Bowl Written competition and Sharpe placed first in Safety Illustration. James Phair took second place in Computer-Aided Design – Engineering, while Logan Wright was third in Computer-Aided Design – Architecture.
For CMS, the team of Zane Al Saleem, Avery Broggi, Tejaswini Chinta, Anthony Gil, Anna Harrington and Anahita Mandal placed first in Website Design. Cayce Becker, Caitlin Dougherty, Joey Fazio, Allie Fergus, Lacey Kurtz and Ashleigh O’Brien teamed to place third in the same event.
Chris Maslij and Kemith Perera place first in a Design Build Test exhibition that was not a state qualifying event.
Tommy Elias and Francisco Song teamed to place second in Problem Solving, while Madison Brooks, Rory Dunleavy and Naimah Malone were second in Leadership Strategies.
Al Saleem, Broggi, Elias, Evan Friedman, Anna Harrington and Benjamin Modovsky placed second in Mass Production. Placing third were Friedman, Alec Gold, Moldovsky and Michael Phair in Junior Solar Sprint – and Andrew Beer, Madison Brooks, George Clark, Rory Dunleavy and Gold placed third in Biotechnology.
Individually, Friedman, Moldovsky and Broggi placed first, second and third, respectively in Digital Photography. Moldovsky also placed first in Chapter Team – Written, while Brad Rhodes placed third in Delta Dart. The TSA state competition is April 18-21 at Seven Springs Resort in Champion, Pa.