Our Franklin High School students were big winners again this year at the STEM-E conference. Congratulations to all!
1st Place in Entrepreneurship – Sydney Giaquinto
1st Place in Hobbies and Special Interest – Morgan Bumgarner
2nd Place in Hobbies and Special Interest – Olivia Swift
For more information about STEM-E visit https://www.stem-e.org/
Entrepreneurship Competition- 1st place – Sydney Giaquinto – $500 Scholarship
• A written business plan utilizing the STEM-E Business Plan Template
• An introduction of the competitor(s), an explanation of the purpose of the plan, and the reasons for choosing the solution (No more than 4 minutes)
• A technical presentation of the business plan utilizing pertinent visual software; PowerPoint is unacceptable. (No more than 5 minutes)
• A “shark tank” type question and answer period to defend your plan (8+ minutes). If a group presentation, each member should answer questions.
• ***Sydney’s business plan was entitled “The Art Fairy” and was inspired by the need to increase art appreciation, especially in children.
• ***Even though a group could compete in this category, Sydney competed alone. Also, one of the judges was a professor in Entrepreneurship at Western Carolina and commented on how she wished Sydney would be going to Western for Entrepreneurship.
• ***Sydney also won first place in the Hobbies and Special Interests last year
Hobbies and Special Interests Competition- 1st place – Morgan Bumgarner- $500 Scholarship and 2nd place – Olivia Swift – $300 Scholarship
• The competition allowed students to showcase examples of their best STEM-E-based work.
• Introduction & Demonstration (10 minutes or less) – Introduce one’s self/group and the topic. What is the context for the work? What were the purposes of the project? Describe why the specific type of technology was chosen for the project, and identify the academic content upon which the project is based. Demonstrate the project utilizing pertinent visual software; the use of PowerPoint is unacceptable. Students may provide explanations if needed.
• Question and Answer Period (10 minutes or less) – Allow time for the judges to ask questions about the project.
• ***Morgan’s project was a meta-analysis of Alzheimer prevention entitled “Potential of Antioxidants to Reduce Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer’s Disease”
• ***Olivia completed a 5-month study on microplastics in our school’s drinking water. Olivia’s project was inspired by a project she worked on at the Coweeta Hydrologic Lab in Otto, NC. Olivia’s project was entitled “Toxic Microplastics in School Drinking Water.”
• ***Again, this could have been done as a group, but both students choose to complete their projects and compete on their own.
More information can be found at stem-e.org
Photo of Winners-
Left to Right Sydney Giaquinto, Morgan Bumgarner, and Olivia Swift
Second Photo of Group-
Left to Right- Top Row Nathan Nathan Pruitt, Spencer Lee, David Cruz-Reyes. 2nd Row from the Top Sarah Weresuk (next years’ advisor), Dakota Sherburn, Jenna Vogt. 2nd Row from the Bottom Kate McMahan (2016-2019 advisor), Sydney Giaquinto, Morgan Bumgarner, Olivia Swift
Bottom Row Yailyn Zuniga, Madison Dulicai, and Sarah Sommers
