Seneca Valley's Chain Reaction Contraption Competition team includes, front, Julian Town; second row, from left, Ty Brinkley, Mike Beggy, Sydney McMurray, Jackie Ko, Jessi Suski and James Rodrigues; and third row, from left, Connor Anderson, Dawson Morrow, Zach Garcia, Harrison Silvester and Kevin Karatassos.

PITTSBURGH — Teams from two local high schools competed in the 2017 Chain Reaction Contraption Competition earlier this month at the Carnegie Science Center.

Seneca Valley Intermediate High School placed sixth in the competition that was held on Dec. 8.

Students Connor Anderson, Zach Garcia, Kevin Karatassos and Sydney McMurray lead the intermediate high school team which also included members, Mike Beggy, Ty Brinkley, Jackie Ko, Dawson Morrow, James Rodrigues, Harrison Silvester, Jessi Suski and Julian Town. These students were led by teacher Patti Griest.

The Seneca Valley team also received an award for “Best Execution of Theme.”

Mars High School also participated in the competition and won a special award for “Best Use of Gravity.” Team members were seniors Kyle Anderson, Shon

Brown and Tyler Charles and junior Gavin Honeycutt. The team's device was themed around a Seven Springs ski slope.More than 40 high school teams from the tri-state area were pitted against one another in the competition.This year's contest asked students to create a Rube Goldberg-type device to accomplish the task of weighing something in 20 steps or more using various concepts and a centralized theme.The annual contest is sponsored by Westinghouse Electric and presented in cooperation with the Carnegie Science Center and the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.chainreactioncontest.org.

The team from Mars Area High School in the Chain Reaction Contraption Competition included Tyler Charles, Shon Brown, Kyle Anderson and Gavin Honeycutt. The team's device, which had to weigh something in 20 steps or more, was themed around a ski slope.