The first STEMinar of the year took place at Rocktown High School in Harrisonburg, Virginia Sept. 17. STEMinars are mandatory events for students attending HHS and RHS who are involved in the Governor’s STEM Academy. Students who showed up to the event participated in a competition between the students from the two high schools, and whichever high school earned more points would win the STEMinar of the quarter, and a student from the winning school got to pie the STEM president of the other school.

HHS STEM students participated in many stations and competitions against Rocktown, such as Jeopardy, medical trivia, and racing paper airplanes. Students also got free pizza and ice cream at the event before the winning school was announced.

In the end, HHS was able to beat Rocktown by 28 points. This meant that the HHS student randomly selected, Katherine Schwartz, pied the STEM president of RHS, ending off the event with the HHS STEM students proud of their victory.

“The STEMinar was fun, we played lots of games, and won against Rocktown by 28 points!” HHS freshman Anya Kashif said.

Freshman Sam Blair also enjoyed his first STEMinar.

“The STEMinar was a unique experience, and I would love to go again,” Blair said.