More than 800 students test technology skills, knowledge at Braden River High.
By
Pam Eubanks
| 1:48 p.m. December 2, 2017
East County
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Bashaw Elementary School’s Allee Owen pushed back on a white plastic spoon strategically placed between pieces of wood, two clothespins and the rubber band circling them.
She and teammates Valerie Marina, Aliza Lara and Emma Faller were eager to load mini pom poms into the spoon and test their recently constructed catapult for competition.
“It’s intense,” Allee said of the Manatee County Technology Student Association District Competition’s catapult contest Dec. 2. “You see other (catapults) and they look really really good, and you’re like, ‘Oh, no,’ and then you realize you’re OK. But, then you turn around again and it’s the same thing.”
Just then, neighbor and fellow Bashaw student Abby Jackson launched a pom pom down the table, nearly hitting Allee and teammates.
“Sorry! I didn’t realize it would go that far,” Abby said.
Allee grinned. She was ready to compete.
The girls all were up to the TSA challenge, held at Braden River High School.
More than 800 students and advisers attended the event, which included students from 29 Manatee County schools, eight Sarasota County schools and three Hillsborough County schools. The 30 events focused on catapults, dragsters, structures, flight, graphics, architecture, video,and other technology and engineering topics.
Braden River High's Sean Koch films for the "on demand video" competition.
Braden River's Zac Phillips, front left, pretends to be a TSA mom shopping for snacks from Alex Touch, right, for a video competition in which students had about three hours to shoot and create a 60-second video.
Haile Middle School's Sidney Buice, Mark Parsons and Cooper Buttari quiz their teammate Liam Tvenstrup in preparation for the chapter team competition, which tests knowledge of parliamentary procedure.
Buffalo Creek Middle School adviser Dana Townson gives Pine View student Sachit Gali his question for the extemporaneous speech contest.
Braden River High's Nick Caballero has 15 minutes to create a speech on radio frequency identification, a topic he just received, as part of the extemporaneous speech contest.
Doug Wagner, executive director of Adult, Career and Technical Education for Manatee County and Manatee Technical College, leads the technology bowl.
Buffalo Creek Middle School students Ryan Gomes, Keirstin Hecht and Eleanor Hopkins hope their winning round gives them a first place finish.
Pictured clockwise from front left: Bashaw Elementary's Allee Owen, Valeria Marina, Aliza Lara and Emma Faller compete in the catapult competition.
Griffin Hudson, Jackson Galvin, Lauren Whiddon, Jake Whiddon, Izzy Rines and Sean Davis represent Braden River High in the chapter team contest.
North Port High School's Brie Larson prepares for the prepared presentation category.
The water tower competition featured plenty of unique designs, including a Pirate-inspired one from Braden River High.
Braden River Middle School's Christian Bell waits for his water tower to be tested. He made it with teammates Connor Hoffman and Ryan McConnaghy, not pictured.
Palmetto High School's Macy Kendzior gets encouragement from friend Stefano Visentin as she prepares to do a presentation on the energy crisis.
Willis Elementary's catapult team, self named as "the fantastic four," show off their special handshake. Pictured are Joyce Chen, Vaylin Jensen, Savannah Adams and Sriya Boggavarapu.
Marissa Braden, Isabella Abreu, Brooke Palmtag, Kylie Caffrey and Audrey Bachman squish together for a selfie during lunch break.
