On April 11, the engineering classes took a field trip to Oakland City College to compete in the Southwest Indiana STEM Challenge. These students were competing for cash prizes from a prize pool of $3000.
The students faced challenges ranging from reading and processing code to making a pine wood derby car with limited time for each challenge.

There were two teams of four, the first being junior Joshua Herd and sophomores Seth Sanders, Wylee Ruckman, and Zaden Taylor. The second team comprised seniors Carson Neal, Jonny Shellenberger, Oscar Lewellyn, and Matthew Tedrow. The team led by Herd came in first in one challenge, earning $200, while the team of seniors came in second in a challenge and third in another challenge and placed second overall for the competition, earning a total of $400.

This is an improvement from last year, when the team went and did not win any money. This time, they won twenty percent of the prize pool.
“I am so very proud of my students for how they performed, they really tried and most importantly had fun, and it really shows through their results,” said Engineering Teacher Mable Zehr.

At the end of the reward ceremony, the engineering class was invited to return for future events.