UND hosts area high school engineering teams A team of highly motivated and talented students from a rural North Dakota high school outpaced most of its national competitors in the recent Junior Engineering Technical Society’s (JETS) test of engineering aptitude, mathematics, and science (TEAMS) competition. The JETS TEAMS competition is held annually at UND and is sponsored by the School of Engineering and Mines and the North Dakota Society of Professional Engineers. The junior varsity team from Northern Cass High School, Hunter, N.D., won the coveted top spot, while the varsity team scored second place. The varsity team from Stephen-Argyle, Minn., placed eighth, and the varsity team from Devils Lake, N.D., placed 43rd amond Division 3 schools. Teams are divided into divisions based on their school’s senior enrollment numbers and open or selective admission criteria. Thirteen teams from North Dakota and Minnesota took the TEAMS test at the School of Engineering and Mines in February. More than 1,200 teams from over 650 high schools in 40 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and two European countries participated in the TEAMS 2007 competition at over 70 locations across the country. Only 379 teams qualified for national ranking. The TEAMS competition is a one-day event that requires students to think critically. The questions posed represent college freshman-level engineering coursework. Team members should have knowledge of math, chemistry, physics, biology, and computer applications, but being an “expert” is not required. From this one-day, two-part competition, teams compete for local, state and national awards and recognition. There are two parts to the TEAMS competition, each of which lasts for 90 minutes. Part I consists of a series of objective multiple-choice questions related to various engineering situations. Part II requires students to describe and defend their solutions to open-ended, subjective questions related to problems from Part I. Teams that come to this UND-hosted event also participate in an engineering design competition and tours of student project areas at the School of Engineering and Mines. JETS is the leading non-profit educational organization dedicated to and vested in promoting engineering and technology careers to America’s youth. TEAMS is an annual national competition for high school students with an interest in math, science, and engineering applications. Each year, TEAMS brings together more than 14,000 students and 700 educators from around the country to solve real-world engineering challenges in a fun and fast-paced environment that inspires creativity, teamwork, critical thinking, and peer-to-peer cooperation. -- Engineering.