Technology Student Association (TSA), a national organization for high school and middle school students, provides an opportunity for participants to work on projects during the year and compete at state and national conferences.

The 35 high school events range from debating about technology to music production to Computer-Aided Design (CAD) events.

Their motto is “Learning to Live in a Technical World” and, according to the TSA website, they design their competitions to try to foster learning and the development of leadership qualities.

Sophia Luo (11), who founded the Harker TSA club last year and is the president this year, discussed what makes the TSA club stand out.

“The unique thing about TSA is that it is more [about] career exploration and [more] interdisciplinary than just pure any STEM field,” she said.

Alex Jang (12), TSA club vice president, discussed the difference between how the club operated last year and this year.

“This year, we know what we’re doing because last year was the first year, so we were a little confused as to how things were going to work at the conference and how we should prepare for our events,” he said. “This year, now that we have all that experience, we can better prepare ourselves and our members for their events.”

Mathematics Department Chair Anthony Silk is the TSA club advisor and also coaches students in the TEAMS competition, which is a day-long test that focuses on the real-world applications of math and science in engineering.

“[TEAMS] allows students to think about problems they may not have thought about before, so you get to do a little bit of research and come up with ideas,” Silk said. “[TSA and TEAMS] both play to students’ strengths and allow them to study more about what they’re interested in outside of the classroom. Even though it’s a competition, the truth is you’re doing this because you find it enjoyable, not because you’re hoping to win some competition.”

An early version of TSA was formed in 1958 under the name American Industrial Arts Student Association (AIASA) as part of the American Industrial Arts Association (AIAA). In 1978, it became a separate non-profit, and in 1988, the name changed to TSA, a title chosen by participating students.

100,000 high school and middle school students were participating in TSA by 1994 and more than 200,000 by 2014. 75% of TSA participants go on to college, and 39% percent are either female or of a minority race.

In the 2014 California state competition, there were 14 Harker first place finishes, 10 second place finishes and two third places finishes.

In addition to its events for the conferences, TSA is affiliated with several other competitions, which include a TSA VEX robotics tournament, the Verizon Innovative App challenge, and the Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science (TEAMS) competition.

This year’s TEAMS theme is “The power of engineering,” and teams of eight students research different subtopics related to energy and engineering, such as wind power, hydropower, smart homes and alternative fuels in preparation for the competition.

The test itself consists two sections: an 80-question, 90-minute multiple choice component and a 90-minute essay-writing portion, where the eight students work together on five essays based on their previously prepared research. A total score is comprised of the multiple choice score and the grade of one randomly selected essay out of the five.

In 2014, six Harker teams participated in the TEAMS state competition. In the 9th and 10th

grade division, two Harker teams ranked first and second, and in the 11th and 12th grade division, three Harker teams respectively placed first, sixth, and tenth.

The 2015 TEAMS regional competition was on March 7 at SJSU, and the TSA state conference will take place March 20 to 21 at CSU Bakersfield. Nationals for both will be held from June 28 to July 2 in Dallas, Texas.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on March 13, 2015.