IHS’s Technology Student Association (TSA) is a club of twenty-some members, and a chapter in a national organization of over 250,000 students interested in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In contrast with some other clubs, it’s difficult to define one academic focus for TSA’s activities. Of course, there is an overarching theme of technology, but TSA also places an emphasis on public speaking, design, and creativity. At the annual state and national conferences, students can compete in 65 competitive events. Most students choose about three or four as their focus each year. Debate, extemporaneous speech, and fashion design? Biotechnology, music production, video game design, and software design? Within TSA exists an impressive breadth of events.
This year, the team traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the 40th annual National TSA Conference. Competition involved over 8,000 participants from 48 states and several countries. Throughout the conference, we made close friends. Our evening meetings included delegations from Connecticut, California, Montana, Germany, and Turkey. We conversed with students from Pennsylvania and Texas outside of our event holding rooms. And, for some of us, we’re still Instagramming and Snapchatting our friends across the country and abroad.
This year’s conference was one of the most successful for IHS in recent memory. In each event, students typically square off against 50-100 other students, all of whom are the most dominant in their state. IHS TSA members left the conference with the following awards this year:
1st place in Prepared Presentation (Tilden Chao ’19)
Competitors receive a presentation topic 24 hours prior to their presentation time. During this period, competitors prepare a PowerPoint slide deck and presentation about the given topic. This year’s topic: highlight significant events and people in Atlanta, Georgia over the past 40 years.
1st place in Technology Bowl (Andrei Tumbar ’19, Joseph Yoon ’19, Tilden Chao ’19)
Teams of three compete in a quiz bowl similar to that of Brain Team. The one catch? Every question is STEM related. Which famous inventor appeared on the first Apple logo? What color denotes starboard on a sailing vessel? What does “LTE” stand for? Technology Bowl rewards students who know the answers to questions like these.
5th place in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (Andrei Tumbar ’19, Tilden Chao ’19)
Teams of two create a product using only computer integrated manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printing, laser cutting, and routing. All the while, students must keep production costs below five dollars per unit. This year, our team made a peach-shaped stamp with the conference logo.
5th place in Webmaster (Andrei Tumbar ’19, Joseph Yoon ’19, Tilden Chao ’19, Felix Shi ’19)
Teams produce a hand-coded and designed website about TSA and STEM activities at the high school. The team’s website can be visited here: www.ihstsa.cf
6th place in Music Production (Eli Zhang ’18, Matthew Guo ’18, Francesca Chu ’18, Jenny Yoon ’18)
Teams have all year to produce a song about the conference theme. This year, students sang, rapped, and composed about the theme, “A Celebration of Success.”
7th place in Extemporaneous Speech (Tilden Chao ’19)
Competitors walk into a room and draw a speech topic. In 15 minutes, competitors are expected to give a cohesive five minute speech about the prompt with limited prepared notes.
9th place in Children’s Story (Eli Zhang ’18, Matthew Guo ’18, Francesca Chu ’18, Jenny Yoon ’18)
Our Children’s Story team wrote and designed a book titled Eiji and the Kingfisher. The book made sounds and lit up to fully illustrate a young boy’s exploration of aerodynamics and the bullet train.
Student activities in TSA are made possible through the efforts of teacher advisors. Ithaca High School’s Scott Breigle and Karen Kiechle, DeWitt’s David Buchner and Nathan Taylor, along with New York state advisor Evie Weinstein, dedicated long nights and countless hours to the success of the students.