Students from across the region were putting their academic and teamwork skills to the test.

Broome Tioga BOCES held its 4th annual Engineering Day.

Around 350 students from 17 local school districts joined together for a fun and educational day of STEM competition.

Each team was tasked with creating the best functional Rube Goldberg machine using a set of everyday materials provided for the project in 3 hours. 

BOCES Assistant Principal Matt Sheehan describes a Rube Goldberg machine as performing simple tasks by a complicated means. 

Sheehan says it’s a good time for students to pursue engineering.

“More and more in high school you have a chance to take one or two classes that could alter what you do with your career path. Getting more kids to look at STEM fields is the best thing we could do here in the Southern Tier. We’re in a saturated market of STEM we have so many good engineering firms that are always looking for people to work in them. So getting students to look at those will only help our community and students,” Sheehan says.

Event participants were in grades 6 through 12.

Winning groups received medals along with bragging rights among the competing schools