The Joergen Smoergen and Algebrains took out the top honour on the final day of Griffith University’s first ever STEM Cup Super Final after heated rounds of competition between South East Queensland schools in 2019.
Griffith Sciences’ STEM Cup has been a long-running competition for school students in years 5 to 8, where they competed in weekly challenges each term to solve science, technology, engineering and mathematics problems.
The top three teams from each age division in the regional grand finals held in terms 2 and 3 competed today in the STEM Cup Super Finalat Griffith’s Nathan Campus, where State Ministerfor Environment and the Great Barrier Reef the Hon. Leeanne Enoch MP presented the awards to the winners.
Prior to the awards presentation, the grand final teams competed in STEM challenges including designing an automated farm gate and drone rock collecting.
The Joergen Smoergen team from St Mary’s College Toowoomba won the secondary division and Algebrains from Varsity College won the primary division.
Griffith Sciences Marketing and Events Coordinator Tui Adams said seeing the students’ passion for STEM on full show in the Super Final was the competition highlight.
“STEM Cup is all about engaging kids’ passion for STEM byutilisingauthentic scenarios, taking what they learn at school and putting it into real-life scenarios,” Adams said. 
“After Year 10 STEM is not compulsory, sofuellingstudents’ passion for them to continue their STEM studies in Years 11 and 12 opens up more options for them to do it at university.
“And the teachers say they see the students more engaged in class and using the leadership skills they’ve learned while doing STEM Cup.”
Griffith introduced the STEM Cup in 2015 as an extra-curricular science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) competition for students in years 5 to 8. The objective of STEM Cup is to increase engagement in STEM in a fun and practical manner that links theory to real life.
Students competed in teams of three. Each week, the teams completed a weekly challenge and were given a score. A school from each zone hosted the weekly challenges. The top 20 teams based on the cumulative weekly scores competed in the grand finals in each term at the Griffith University campus.
The STEM Cup participation has increased over the five years.
In 2019, STEM Cup was delivered in four zones:
- Gold Coast
- Brisbane
- East Brisbane (incorporating Moreton Bay ad Redland Bay)
- West Brisbane (Logan to Toowoomba)