Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington Students Win Competition
Two sixth-grade teams from Randall G. Lynch Middle School in Farmington were named as first and second place winners in the 15th annual eCYBERMISSION competition, one of several science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives sponsored by U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program.
Team LST — with members Andrew Disheroon, Avery Widzinski and Carson Austin — was the first place winner and Team Project Earth — with members Pixie Hickerson, Anna de Leon, Zoie Jones and Brighid Calhoun-Simpson — was the second place winner.
Another Lynch team was named honorable mention. Members of Team Regional Resources are Lindsey Scogin, Zoe Nix and Aubree McWhorter.
The eCYBERMISSION competition is administered by the National Science Teachers Association and promotes self-discovery and enables students to recognize the real-life applications of science, math, technology and mathematics. The competition challenges students in grades six through nine to develop solutions to real-world problems in their local communities.
Students compete for state, regional, and national awards for up to $9,000 in U.S. EE Savings Bonds, valued at maturity.
Both LST and Project Earth worked with Melissa Miller, team advisor and a Lynch Middle School teacher, utilizing STEM applications to complete their projects.
The LST team designed a system for filtering waste water that escapes from a landfill. They built a model landfill. The students compared the contaminates in the unfiltered water to those in their filtered system.
Project Earth developed a project comparing the effects of using a chemical pesticide to an organic pesticide. They used three identical plants, treating one with a chemical spray, one with an organic garlic spray, and one as the control. The runoff was collected and tested for pH levels and contaminates.
The teams then submitted their Mission Folder— the official write-up of the project— through the eCYBERMISSION website to be evaluated and scored by volunteer virtual judges. State winning 1st place teams receive $1,000 per student in U.S. EE Savings Bonds and 2nd place teams receive $500 per student in U.S. EE Savings Bonds.
“The U.S. Army applauds all the students for challenging themselves to the eCYBERMISSION competition in efforts to improve their communities,”” said Louie R. Lopez, cooperative agreement manager with Army Educational Outreach Program. “Congratulations to all the state winning teams and we encourage students to continue building their interest and knowledge in STEM.”
“eCYBERMISSION not only encourages students to be both creative and scientific, but also requires them to think critically while developing innovative solutions to some of their communities’ most challenging issues,” said Dr. Mary Gromko, president of National Science Teachers Association. “We congratulate the state winners and commend all of the team advisors for engaging and empowering their students to make a real difference in the world around them.”
In the next round of the eCYBERMISSION competition, a panel of judges will evaluate the top three scores from each region in each grade level. Sixty regional finalist teams will compete to advance as one of 20 national finalists, moving on to compete at the National Judging & Educational Event that will be held June 26-30 in Washington, D.C.