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A team of students from Mountain View High School in Gwinnett County was awarded a Northrop Grumman scholarship covering registration fees for the Junior Engineering Technical Society’s 2011 TEAMS competition recently hosted by the University of Georgia.

Teams from Gwinnett School of Math, Science and Technology and Heritage High School joined the Mountain View High team in the academic competition whose theme was “Smart Energy. Clean Planet.”

Members of the teams from Mountain View High School, Gwinnett School of Math, Science and Technology and Heritage High School who participated in the 2011 JETs TEAMS competition hosted at UGA.

“TEAMS, or Tests of Engineering, Aptitude, Mathematics and Science, brings math and science to life for students, fostering creativity, critical thinking, teamwork and problem solving,” said John Mativo, an assistant professor in the College of Education’s department of workforce education, leadership and social foundations, and a member of the  UGA Faculty of Engineering, who co-directed the competition.

The event featured high school students (grades 9-12) participating in teams of four to eight members, using real-world applications of math and science to solve some of today’s greatest engineering challenges. There are two parts: a 90-minute, 80 multiple choice question session and a 90-minute, open-ended, four-question session.

About 30 participating students also saw demonstrations of and interacted with robotics in a presentation by Chi Thai, an associate professor in the department of biological and agricultural engineering, and member of the faculty of engineering who co-directed the event. They also learned about and participated in the creation of a virtual reality scenario by Kyle Johnsen, a member of the UGA Faculty of Engineering. Cindy Crawford, a representative of the UGA Admissions Office, also made a presentation.

The TEAMS event was also assisted by Nancy Vandergrift, a program coordinator with the UGA Office of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education and six UGA students from the department of workforce education, leadership, and social foundations.

More than 14,000 students across the country participate annually in TEAMS competitions. Questions are aligned with national education standards. UGA is one of two sites hosting the competition in Georgia. The other site is the Atlanta University Center. The next JETs TEAMS competition will be hosted at UGA on Feb. 22, 2012.

TEAMS competition site sponsors include: Harvard University, Itasca Community College, National Education Partnership Alliance, Shell and Starbucks.

More information about TEAMS, the UGA College of Education and Northrop Grumman is available at the following websites: www.jets.org/teams/, www.coe.uga.edu/ and www.northropgrumman.com/