Tolt Middle School results for TSA State Conference
Tolt’s team of 37 TSA members traveled to Seatac for a three-day state TSA conference to compete in technology
challenges against other middle schools from across the state of Washington. Tolt set a school record for the number of
first-place plaques it brought home: 7. Overall, Tolt students returned with 16 plaques.
What was new or noteworthy this time around? Tolt students won the video game design competition for the fifth
consecutive year. In a new category, called Catapult Design, Tolt students took second place honors. Tolt also finished
second in another new category called Children’s Stories. And for the first time ever, students from Tolt were finalists in
Dragster and Junior Solar Sprint. Being a finalist means they finished in the top five. Connor Aksama defended his state
title in Essay on Technology. Connor joined Ethan Duer and Seamus Allen to take top honors in Tech Bowl, which is an
assessment of general knowledge in technology categories. This is the third consecutive year a Tolt team has won this
event. Ethan Duer also got the highest individual score on the written portion of this test, making him the mostknowledgeable middle school student in the state.
By finishing in the top two (or three) places, most of the kids listed below have qualified to compete at the national level in
Nashville, TN this June. Be sure to congratulate them!
Catapult Design (create a catapult from pvc pipe and fire hollow golf balls at a target):
2nd place Angela Grant and Heather Olson
Children’s Stories (create an original story on a theme and then illustrate it):
3rd place Jasmine Bodis and Christi Norris
4th place Hannah Hobbs and Lauren Lakin
Community Service Video (create a video that describes your chapter's fundraiser for the American Cancer Society):
1st place Tolt Middle School (Connor Aksama and Husein Syed)
3rd place Tolt Middle School (Maria Arguelles, Hannah Hobbs, Lauren Lakin, Chloe Wones)
Digital Photography (submit a portfolio of images on a theme):
1st place Lillian Marshall
2nd place Hannah Hobbs
Dragster (design and build a CO2 powered car):
5th place Gunnar Benson
Essays on Technology (research in advance three topics related to technology and have one hour to write an essay on
one of those topics, randomly chosen):
1st place Connor Aksama
4th place Madeline Hoffmann
Inventions and Innovations (create a presentation that explains an invention that solves a problem):
3rd place Tolt Middle School (Maria Arguelles, Hannah Hobbs, Lauren Lakin, Chloe Wones)
Junior Solar Sprint (design and build a solar-powered vehicle that competes in several rounds of racing):
4th place Tolt Middle School (Josh Lee and Cedric Scheumann)
Mass Production (design a designated item with the TSA logo and then reproduce it for a total of three identical items):
4th place Tolt Middle School (Connor Aksama, Ethan Duer, Husein Syed)
Medical Technology Issues (choose an example of medical technology and create a display educating the public about
that issue):
2nd place Tolt Middle School (Maria Arguelles, Hannah Hobbs, Lauren Lakin, Chloe Wones)
Problem Solving (walk into the room with a tool kit and create a solution to a given problem that will be tested on the
spot):
2nd place Tolt Middle School (Seamus Allen and Andy Culverwell)
Promotional Marketing (create a portfolio of three desk-top published pieces promoting the TSA chapter, and then
complete an hour-long site challenge):
1st place Maria Arguelles
STEM Animation (create a visualization that explains a STEM idea or process ):
2nd place Tolt Middle School (Ethan Fleming, Zachary Tisdale, Nicolas Risukhin)
Tech Bowl (In a three-part exam, answer technology questions covering energy, medicine, construction, agriculture, and
TSA history):
1st place for Tech Bowl Finals Tolt Middle School (Connor Aksama, Ethan Duer, Seamus Allen)
Tech Bowl Written (in an online exam, answer a broad range of questions relating to technology; this is the qualifying
step for Tech Bowl):
1st place Ethan Duer
Video Game Design (create a video game with at least 5 levels that has a socially redeeming focus)
1st place Tolt Middle School (Connor Aksama, Ethan Duer, Husein Syed).
Website Design (Create a website with several links, explaining 3D Printing):
2nd place (Seamus Allen, Andy Culverwell, Ben Tisdale, Nicolas Risukhin)
A special thank you to our Mr. Jeff Grassley, who took time off from Tolt to serve as a volunteer and chaperone and
judge.
Another thank you to Mr. Erik McFarland, who also helped chaperone and judge at the conference. In addition to these
contributions, Mr. McFarland mentored a robotics program at Tolt, and volunteered each Tuesday this year so a team of
students could bring their VEX Robot to state and compete.