The TSA is holding a competition April 15-18, for junior high and high school club members, at Seven Springs, Champion, PA. The competition is being hosted by the Pennsylvania Technology Student Association. In this competition, the TSA team will compete in different theme-based events.

“It stands for the Technology Student Association, it is a national organization that is competitive in nature. The students are involved in a maximum of six activities and they start at the beginning of the year, analyze the criteria and look through the scoring rubrics. Many of the activities are theme based, so the students come up with an idea, and work through the problem solving process. There is a wide range of topics, ranging from medical technology, agricultural, biotech, web design, video production, graphic design. There are a lot of individual events, and there are also team events,” Tim Dzurko, TSA co-adviser said.

At this competition, the AAJHS and AAHS TSA members will be up against students from other schools all over the state of Pennsylvania.

“There will be roughly 1,500-1,600 students competing in the state competition. There are two different categories: a middle junior high level and a high school level. Tech Bowl is a head to head knowledge based activity,” Dzurko said.

There are group advisers that will be hosting it, just as they do every year.

“There is a group advisers from around the state that organize and host the event. The national competition is being hosted in Dallas, TX,” Dzurko said.

This is not the first time the Altoona Area School District schools have sent students to compete in the state competitions. Students in this area have won national competitions.

“We’ve had a couple of national winners, over the years. Students do a great amount of work and are rewarded in the end,” Dzurko said.

“We do different events, whether or not you’re inventing or debating on something. You just make a prototype and explain how you’ve made it, why you’ve made it, and what for. I did a debating event,” Coby Bernhart-Horton, Freshman TSA member said. “I think the events are fun. We get to get out of school and and have fun. I want to get first place, so I can go to the other competition, after states (national competition).”

Every year, students make designs and prototypes of their inventions.

“This year we made a pillow with an alarm clock in it. We had to make a wallet design. We had to design what it would look like with the TSA logo and how it would store certain objects,” Bernhart-Horton said.