This year’s competition consisted of 29 teams of three girls from schools in the surrounding area, including Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School, Wellesley High School and Natick High School. Some schools had more than one team enrolled in the competition. This year also marked the tenth annual Women of Science competition. Science teacher Sandrine Colson-Inam was the Wayland team’s coach, and the team was also aided by Briasco-Stewart’s father.

“What went really well was our ability to work together to work on some of these challenges,” Ayanian said.

This year’s competition consisted of four different events. The first event was the “MCAS challenge.” In this timed event, the competitors answered past MCAS questions related to biology, chemistry, math, physics and technology. The WHS team placed first in this event. This event replaced last year’s “Pick Your Points” event.

The second event was called “Anything Goes!”, where 10 stations were set up with questions or activities relating to physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and other science-related subjects. The Wayland girls won fourth in this event.

The third event was called “Mystery Architecture,” for which the teams brought household tools and were given an engineering challenge and materials at the door. This year, the teams were asked to build a bridge that could support a weight without sagging more than five centimeters. Each team was given a brown paper bag containing straws, pipe cleaners, paper clips and tape to use as their materials. The bridge that could span across the longest gap while holding the weight and staying within the five centimeter sag line won the event. The Wayland team’s bridge placed fifth.

The last event was “Projectile Skee-Ball,” in which each team had to build a mechanism before the competition that would catapult a hacky sack at a skee-ball inspired target. They were given three minutes to launch 30 hacky sacks at a skee-ball target. The WHS team’s catapult won second.

“The catapult was very fun to build with my teammates, and I felt like we bonded while overcoming challenges in the construction process,” Ayanian said.

These three Wayland girls first competed in the annual competition in 2011 after their science teacher informed his classes about the event.

After winning the competition, the girls won a plaque, medals, bags, books and $500 each. All of the competitors also received certificates and Women of Science t-shirts for participating.

For more information about participating in future Women of Science competitions, visit the program’s website or contact Colson-Inam, Ayanian, Briasco-Stewart, Vora or the head of the event, Michael Griffin.