Congratulations to Emma Gasbarro, Lauren Balint, Ava Mazur, and Samantha Steele who won the grade 6-8 Division of the STEM Design Challenge at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit for the second consecutive year!

They will again advance to the state level and compete in Hershey later this school year!

Their previous experience in the competition helped them prepare their design in limited time due to involvement in other school projects and extracurriculars.

"We were admittedly really last minute with this project, and we had to work really hard right before the competition to finish everything," Lauren and Samantha said. "We work well together. We each have our own talents and ways to contribute. We’re also friends and get along really well, so when we work together we feel like we can do good."

Three Deer Lakes Middle School teams competed in this year’s STEM Design Challenge, and each team was asked to research problems related to infrastructure, sustainability, and accessibility.

Emma Gasbarro, Lauren Balint, Ava Mazur, and Samantha Steele earned first place by designing a machine that could recharge and make batteries run more efficiently.

Congratulations to all of our teams!