Potosi Students Did Well At Tech Fair At Three Rivers

Several Potosi High School students participated at the 73rd Annual T.E.A.M. Industrial Technology Fair held in the Bess Activity Center at Three Rivers College.

Seventy-five projects from the Southeast District contest qualified for the State Competition. Students from Chaffee, Bunker, Jackson, North County, Potosi, Ellington, and Van Buren displayed 211 projects across 13 categories, including woodworking, art, robotics, and more.

Eight students from Potosi were State Qualifiers which meant they were considered to be the best of the projects at the District level. Those students were Kairi Politte with her Copper Tooling, Blaine Edmonds with his Cutting/Serving Board, Mandy Silakowsky with her Segmented Bowl, Isaiah Marty with his Segmented Turning with compound angles, Jasmine Lefler with her Mirror, Jay Douglas with his V6 Engine Drawing, Brendan McRaven with his RC Helicopter Drawing, and Dalton Goodson with his Flag.

Two Potosi students won Best in Class at the District level in different categories, including Kairi Politte who took Best in Class with her “Fox,” and classmate Mandy Silakowsky won Best in Class with her “Segmented Bowl.”

Six of the eight Students competed at the State Competition with two students receiving high honors. Kairi Politte was winner of the Grand Award in her Division, and Jay Douglas received the Grand Award as well as Best Project in his division. The Industrial Technology Fair provides an invaluable experience for the students who participate and compete. “It gives them an incentive to pull out all the stops on their work, and it allows them a chance to see what other students like them are creating. The end result tends to be amazing, professional-quality projects.

T.E.A.M. (Technology Education Association of Missouri) is a teacher organization that is affiliated with ITEEA (International Technology and Engineering Educators Association), ACTE (Association for Career and Technical Education), National TSA (Technology Student Association) and Missouri TSA. The organization focuses on supporting industrial technology educators by providing conferences, workshops and educational newsletters, curriculum, and student-based competitive programs.