---
title: Event Aims to Construct an Interest in STEM
date: 2024-07-26T16:00:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/event-aims-to-construct-an-interest-in-stem"
section: Articles
---
# Event Aims to Construct an Interest in STEM

*July 26, 2024* — by [Rebecca Moon Ruark](/author/rebecca-ruark)


> Students Compete, and Learn Engineering Principles, With Rubber Band-Powered Carts

*WIE Goal Kit Event 1920x1080 — Rising ninth graders at Oxon Hill High School monitor the progress of their rubber band-powered cart in an engineering competition, while UMD president Darryll J. Pines observes in the background. Pines (second from left, below) later participated in the celebration of the competition's overall winners from Eleanor Roosevelt High School.*

Turns out that getting members of Gen Z to put down their phones doesn’t take even more whizbang technology. Sometimes a rubber band, cardboard, wood and a handful of pennies is enough.

Those were the basic ingredients for a competition Thursday at Ritchie Coliseum that brought together hundreds of rising ninth graders from four area schools for a friendly engineering competition, the second such [annual event](https://today.umd.edu/making-engineering-make-cents-to-teens) hosted by the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. Students waved pompoms, clapped thunder sticks and called school chants as they cheered their classmates from the bleachers.

The teams built miniature carts powered by a rubber band-driven propellor that carried a cargo of pennies across a finish line. What looked like a race was also a way to teach concepts of aerodynamic propulsion, efficiency and mission planning. The top prize went to Eleanor Roosevelt students. “It’s not really about going faster,” said one of the winners. “It’s about having a strategic plan.”


*winning group poses with trophy — From left: STEM Supervisor for PGCPS Felicia Martin Latief, UMD President Darryll J. Pines, teachers and students from winning school Eleanor Roosevelt, WIE Director Paige Smith, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs Ken Kiger.*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Academic Competitions](https://today.umd.edu/topic/academic-competitions)


**Units:** [A. James Clark School of Engineering](https://today.umd.edu/topic/james-clark-school-engineering)