Middle and high schools students from across Georgia who plan to participate in the annual Tests of Engineering, Aptitude, Mathematics and Science competition at the University of Georgia have an opportunity to earn one of two Northrop Grumman scholarships to cover their registration fees for the day-long learning experience.
Simply by registering and meeting a set of criteria, these teams of students can earn the registration fee of $125 for the program, which will be held Feb. 20.
“TEAMS brings math and science to life for students, fostering creativity, critical thinking, teamwork and problem solving,” said John Mativo, an assistant professor in the College of Education’s department of workforce education and a College of Engineering faculty member, who is co-directing the competition.
With the theme “Engineering a Secure Cyberspace,” the competition features high school (grades 9-12) and middle school (grades 7-8) students participating in teams of four to eight members using real-world applications of math and science to solve engineering challenges. The high school competition has two parts: a 90-minute, 80 multiple choice question session and a 90-minute, open-ended, four-question session. The middle school competition includes an afternoon session of 40 multiple choice and four essay tasks, with each session 60 minutes in length. Questions are aligned with national education standards.
Participating teams seeking one of the Northrop Grumman Scholarships are required to register at the TEAMS website, which is https://www.registermychapter.com/TSA/TEAMS/reg/ and indicate that the host is UGA. On the day of the competition, schools will be reimbursed the registration cost of $125 if they receive notification and meet the following criteria:
the school is participating for the first time in the UGA competition and/or can demonstrate financial need;
the team is a new club in the school, such as an engineering/science club; and,
the school or team has traveled a distance to UGA.
To earn a scholarship, teams must write an approximate 500-word paragraph on why they should be considered for the Northrop Grumman Scholarship. The application should be emailed to John Mativo at jmativo@uga.edu by Jan. 11, and scholarship winners will be notified by Jan. 15.
“The competition benefits students by showing them why math and science matters in the real world,” said Mativo. “Its academic rigor challenges students with new topics and ideas. In addition, participants get inside information about college admissions and could win great prizes as well.”
Mativo is co-directing the competition with Chi Thai, an associate professor in the UGA College of Engineering, and assisted by Nancy Vandergrift, a program coordinator with the Office of STEM Education at UGA.
Last year, participating teams from local area schools sent 80 students for the UGA TEAMS competition. Across the country, more than 10,000 students participate in the programs. UGA is one of two sites hosting the competition in state, with the Georgia Institute of Technology as the other location. This will be the fifth year UGA has hosted the event.
For more information, see the UGA TEAMS site at http://www.engr.uga.edu/~mvteachr/TEAMS.html.
