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North Central Missouri College welcomed 21 students from five area high schools, Marceline, Trenton, Stanberry, Cameron, and Winston, for its annual STEM Explorations Day, an event designed to immerse students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through hands-on activities and competitions.

Students in attendance participated in a campus scavenger hunt, a forensics demonstration, a computer science challenge, an anatomy challenge, a math competition, and an engineering competition.

In the engineering competition, teams designed devices to release a cup of water from the balcony of Cross Hall to the first floor while retaining the most water. All teams successfully engineered creative solutions.

Following lunch and campus resource tables, the afternoon featured a STEM Team Competition using Kahoot, bringing energy and collaboration to the event. Every student left with a commemorative t-shirt.

“STEM Explorations was a day full of competitions and demonstrations focused on science, technology, engineering, and math.” Tracy Welch, NCMC Mathematics Instructor said, “The high school participants appeared to have lots of fun as they competed against one another both individually and in small groups. I’m so glad we were able to host and encourage future employees in the STEM fields!”

Competition Results:

Individual Math Competition

1st: Nora Vandeloecht (Marceline R-V)

2nd: Song Graves (Marceline R-V)

3rd: Cash Barnes (Marceline R-V)

STEM Team Competition

1st: Sophie Lockwood, Hadley Dorrell, Kylee Krumpelman, Nora Vandeloecht (Marceline R-V)

2nd: Kaiden Marth, Waylon Estep, Brayden Watkins, Evan Caldwell (Winston R-VI)

3rd: Kinsley Otto, Brianna Wheelbarger, Isaac Bonta, Ethan Shell (Trenton R-IX)

Engineering Competition (mixed-school teams)

1st: Hayden Swan, Kylee Krumpelman, Nora Vandeloecht

2nd: Hadley Dorrell, Nathan Taylor, Song Graves

3rd: Waylon Estep, Evan Gregory, Brianna Wheelbarger

Bag of Bones Competition

1st: Nora Vandeloecht (Marceline R-V)

2nd: Isaac Bonta & Ethan Shell (Trenton R-IX)

“Imagine a group of high school students having fun with math.” said Dr. Susan Stull, NCMC Science Instructor, “Imagine a group of teenagers enjoying chemistry. Imagine a group of students laughing at challenging science jokes. It may be difficult to imagine these things, but STEM Explorations Day provides opportunities for students interested in STEM career-related topics to be immersed in science, technology, engineering, and math activities and have fun while they do it. Students enjoyed learning about drone technology, forensics, engineering, and other topics through the demonstrations and competitions. We look forward to having STEM Explorations Day again next year.”