What is TSA TEAMS?

The TSA TEAMS program is an annual high school competition challenging students to work collaboratively and apply their math and science knowledge in practical, creative ways to solve real everyday engineering challenges.  After participating in TEAMS, students increase their knowledge of engineering, feel more confident about participating in engineering activities and increase their ability to work with others to solve complex problems.

In recent years, countless reports have identified troublesome science and math achievement gaps in America, and signaled the need for renewed efforts to cultivate a competitive 21st century workforce. These reports point to the necessity of programs that foster STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) literacy in effective ways, and across a broader range of young people.

The TEAMS Competition helps develop “STEM-capable” students in an engaging way by showing them how math and science, with an engineering focus, are used to make tangible differences in the world.

Focused on a theme each year, original academic and innovative concepts are developed for the competition based on the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges. Tackling these challenges requires critical job-readiness skills such as collaboration, analytical thinking, and multidimensional problem-solving.

What will students tackle in 2011? 

Energy and the global need for diversification, efficiency, security and ecological sustainability.

Working in a written competition format, teams of four to eight students to face off during two ninety-minute parts:

• Part 1: Eight scenarios with 10 multiple choice questions each, requiring team members to apply math and science knowledge to novel situations.  
• Part 2: Eight tasks to be answered in a short essay format, expanding students' ideas as they explain their ideas for engineering solutions.

The one-day competitions take place at over 100 locations between February 14 and March 15, 2011 through a partnership with high school educators, universities, corporations, and professional organizations.  Involving more than 10,000 students, schools and groups compete just one day during the four-week period vying for competition day, state, and national rankings and awards. 

Event Photos

TEAMS 2010