STEM Design Challenge

ARIN will host its annual STEM Design Challenge on March 5, 2025 at the Elderton High School Gym beginning at 9:30 am and ending by 1:30 pm. This year's challenge is directly related to the UN Goal 9 Sustainable Development. In this challenge, elementary and middle school students will focus on Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (UN Sustainable Development Goal 9) by designing a prototype that addresses a real-world problem related to infrastructure, transportation, or urban development. The goal is to inspire students to think about how cities, roads, bridges, and systems can be built or improved to be more efficient, sustainable, and accessible. A change this year is that students can use Engino and/or K'Nex pieces. You can purchase the STEM Design Challenge Engino kit from this link. This event is for students in grade bands 4-5 and 6-8. The registration deadline is February 26, 2025.

Additional changes for this year:

• Because we are adding Engino, we have removed the requirements for motors and for the middle school inventory.

• Teams can use K'Nex, Engino, or a mix of both. (They don't connect together but teams could use both in their prototype.)

• The max number of pieces will still be 1400, however teams may not need as many pieces with Engino.

• String, tape and rubber bands are permitted.

The challenge for the 2025 event can be found at this link.

To register your teams for this event please click on this link. Registration deadline is February 16, 2025.

Parent--Guardian/Photo forms can be found on this link.

A link to the rubric can be found here.

There will be an $8 cost per student for lunch and awards.

The state competition will be held at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg on Friday, May 9, 2025. Projects placing 1st place in ARIN's regional event will be invited to attend the state competition.

If you have any questions please email Lori Rodgers at lrodgers@iu28.org.