News Article

Two Edison Collegiate High School Students Win 2012-2013 STEM Challenge

Apr 17, 2013

Edison Collegiate High School students, Austin Ward and Laith Elrubaie were the overall high school division winners of the 2012-2013 STEM Challenge competition that encompassed four STEM tour events around Southwest Florida.  

“We are so proud of Austin and Laith, and all the students who participated in the STEM Tour events,” said Brian Botts, Ph.D., Principal for the Edison Collegiate High School - Lee Campus.  “Seeing the creativity to achieve solutions from all the students was amazing, and we hope this program gets larger each year.”

This is the second year for the STEM Challenge program, which was created in conjunction with the educational and business communities of Southwest Florida.  The goal is to work with the STEM team of Southwest Florida to weave STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) into the fabric of our community.  The STEM Challenge is a coordinated series of events will give elementary, middle, and high school students the opportunity to enhance their skills. Each event had its own registration, rules and prizes. Each event also allowed participants to accumulate transferable tour points that were used to declare the overall winner.

Ward and Elrubaie participated in all four tour stops, with each stop presenting the participants with a unique challenge.  They creating a solar boat with recycled material (all participants had to purchase solar panels and a motor), launching a ping pong ball to hit a desired target, safely transporting an egg across a zip line or a five-story fall, creating a rubber band boat, and more.   The winners received a prize bag full of goodies that included tickets to local attractions, pencils, water bottles and more.  Their prize package also included a private behind-the-scenes tour with the JetBlue Park engineers to learn how this new and conventional structure was created.

Last Updated: April 17, 2013