Students from 16 middle schools and 15 high schools participated in the 2012 Palm Beach County SECME Secondary Olympiad on February 25 at Santaluces High School. During the Olympiad, students participated in a variety of competitions which included mousetrap cars, water rockets, bridges, brain bowl, banners, essays, and posters. The theme for this year’s SECME program was “SECME: Plan It ٠ Build It ٠ Live It!”
“SECME is an excellent program that provides students with opportunities to apply hands-on problem solving techniques to real engineering challenges. They get to design, test, re-design, and re-test until they produce a working model – pretty much the same way engineers do their jobs,” said Bruce Wear, SECME District Coordinator.
The following schools were the overall district winners at the secondary level:
Honorable Mention: Don Estridge Middle School
Second Place (TIE): Bak Middle School of the Arts
Second Place (TIE): Eagles Landing Middle School
First Place: Palm Springs Middle School
Honorable Mention: John I. Leonard High School
Third Place: Seminole Ridge High School
Second Place: Royal Palm Beach High School
First Place: Suncoast High School
The following individual students, teams, and/or schools were the top winners in individual events:
ESSAY:
First Place: Eagles Landing Middle – Sarah Palumbo
First Place: Suncoast High – Lily Shrayfer
BANNER:
First Place: Bak Middle SOA
First Place: Seminole Ridge High
POSTER:
First Place: Loggers Run Middle – Ashley Ramirez
First Place: Jupiter High – Selena Harman
BRAIN BOWL:
First Place: Eagles Landing Middle
First Place: John I. Leonard High
WATER ROCKET:
First Place: Bak Middle SOA – Team Flyers
First Place: Suncoast High – Positively Charged
BRIDGE:
First Place: Don Estridge Middle – The Smarticle Dragons
First Place: Suncoast High – Positively Charged
MOUSETRAP CAR:
First Place: Palm Springs Middle – The A-Team
First Place: Suncoast High – Just Do It
Palm Springs Middle School and Suncoast High School will represent the school district at the SECME National Student Competition which will be held on June 26, 2012 at the University of Alabama. In addition, essays written by Sarah Palumbo from Eagles Landing Middle and Lily Shrayfer from Suncoast High will advance to the national competition.
This was the fifth overall win for Palm Springs Middle School and the eighth overall win for Suncoast High School.
According to Carol Marshall Smith, SECME Coordinator at Suncoast High School, “SECME is the bridge between academics and application. It teaches you to not become satisfied and to always strive for improvement.”
SECME (Science, Engineering, Communication, and Mathematics Enrichment) is a program that strives to increase the pool of students who will be prepared to enter and complete post-secondary studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This program reaches out to students who are historically under-represented in the STEM fields with the long-term goal of creating a more diverse workforce. The School District of Palm Beach County supports the goals and mission of SECME.
For more information, contact Bruce Wear, SECME District Coordinator, at (561) 357-1125 or bruce.wear@palmbeachschools.org.
