Four Columbus St. Francis DeSales High School students, Allison Rankin, ’27; Ava Manfresca, ’26; Dera Hicks Prieto, ’27 and Keith Arthur, ’26 placed ninth in Mathematical Modeling at the 2026 TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science) national competition at the end of June in National Harbor, Maryland.
One of four challenges in this year’s competition included tasking teams with optimizing the layout of a theme park.
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Teams were instructed to develop a system to minimize wait times while maximizing the use of available space. The group representing St. Francis DeSales worked efficiently to refine and explain their design.
They also competed in a Presentation Challenge, Multiple Choice Exam and Design/Build Challenge. The United States and Europe had 194 teams participating in the event.