Sea, Air and Land challenge held at BLHS

CONNORVILLE -- Students at Buckeye Local High School recently achieved top honors for their performance in the sea portion of the sixth-annual Sea, Air & Land Challenge held April 28 in both of the school's gymnasiums and outdoors.

Teams from Ohio and West Virginia put their Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math knowledge to use, competing in various obstacles and activities based on the categories air, sea and land.

The event, sponsored by Penn State University Electro-Optics Center, consisted of teams from BLHS, Martins Ferry, Wheeling Central Catholic and Mount Vernon.

Competitors operated their remote-controlled robots before judges, who based scores on how they designed their robot and how they completed timed tasks.

Math teacher Jeff Merrill, who helped create the school's STEM program, organized the competition and praised the teams for their hard work and ingenuity.

"A lot of the scores were really close," Merrill said. "The kids did an amazing job and it was great to see them working together."

Buckeye's Sea Team 6 took home a win in the sea challenge; the Martins Ferry Purple Knights won in the air challenge; and land competition winners were the Wheeling Central Dinoco team, earning the Innovation Award.

Susan Zingaro, coordinator of workforce development at Penn State Applied Research Center, congratulated teams on their accomplishments, stating the event helps determine if STEM careers are in their future.

"One of the goals is to give you the opportunity to see what it's like to do an engineering project," Zingaro said, adding, "if you would want to go into engineering and if you want to go into STEM," Zingaro said. "The second goal is to let you know about the tremendous amount of opportunities in the Department of Defense."

She noted the Sea, Air & Land Challenge was sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which consists of more than 6,000 people across the world who assist the U.S. Department of Defense.

"It is to deter, prevent and prevail and they want to recruit a lot of smart minds and sponsor events for students,"Zingaro said. "They have military and civilian members working in the agency and help allies understand what's a potential threat for the country."

Zingaro said many fields were available in the DTRA, from engineering and organizing to linguistics and coding software; while an outreach program was offered for thinkers who understand technology. She also touched on available internships, scholarships and opportunities to students. The Sea, Air & Land Challenge was first created at the EOC. Buckeye Local had been invited to participate, after which school officials began their own event in 2018, attracting 100 students from throughout the Tri-State Area.