Range Resources teamed up with the Intermediate Unit 1 (IU1) to offer a STEM Challenge for students in grades 5-12 on Thursday, April 7, 2022. The Intermediate Unit 1 is a regional educational agency that provides educational support to the students and the communities throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania.
The inaugural STEM Challenge had 156 students participate from 13 school districts across Washington County. Range also had 23 volunteers participating, helping this event to be successful.
“The event overall exceeded our expectations,” said Christina Kramer, Public Affairs. “Who knew bridges made of popsicle sticks could hold over 230 pounds!? We were all impressed by the time, effort and enthusiasm the teams put forth to complete our challenge and we are already looking forward to next year,” she said.
The challenge was created by Range’s Water Operations Department and offers students the opportunity to solve real-life obstacles the team faces when routing water transfer pipelines: engineering, building, and operating a bridge across a water feature.
Water Operations Manager, Justin Welker, said, “I was really proud of the teams for all their hard work,” he said. “I told a lot of the kids that it wasn’t necessarily about the end result, but about the process that got them there. Learning teamwork, communication, problem solving, and public speaking skills will help them throughout their lives and careers.”
The competition features prompts aimed at both a middle school (5-8) and high school (9-12) levels. Range provided each middle school team with a $100 stipend and each high school team with a $150 stipend to complete the competition.
Taking place in the Range Resources Southpointe office, students presented their projects to a panel of Range judges along with their design notes on how they developed their prototype.
Cash prizes are awarded to first, second and third place student winners at each competition level while top-three teachers will earn classroom grants ranging from $250-$1,000.
An award will also be given to the most creative solution for middle school and high school levels.
Laural Highlands placed first in the middle school division with Fort Cherry teams finishing second and third. Most Creative/Innovative was Chartiers-Houston and Laural Highlands took the title of Most Fun to Break.
For the high school level, Trinity finished first and was named Most Creative/Innovative. Canon-Mac finished second and Beth-Center finished third. Classroom grants were awarded respectively to each team’s winning place.
Range Resources looks forward to continuing to present these academic challenges in partnership with the IU1 and local school districts in the years to come.
Read more in the Observer-Reporter here: Local schools build bridges for Range Resources, IU1 STEM Challenge