NVOT’s STEM League placed second overall out of 22 teams at Bloomfield High School in February. The members of this year’s STEM team are freshman Jolie Dolan and sophomores Ryan Choi, Eli Levenshus, Andrew Choi and Stephen Kymn.

The STEM League, which stands for science, technology, engineering, and math, gives teams a task where they must quickly complete that incorporates all four parts of STEM. “STEM allows us to use things we have learned in a fun competition,” said sophomore Ryan Choi.

This year, “the challenge was for teams to build a straw rocket,” said Choi. The teams had to find a way to have the rocket go the same distance with and without a weight on it.

Choi continued saying that he is “proud of what we did because there were a lot of really smart teams.”

Levenshus said that he also is “proud of the team but part of [him] wishes the team could have come in first.” He continued saying that he “hopes the team can continue their success this year.”