Dozens of high school and middle school girls spent last Saturday engineering brick walls, mixing chemical solutions, solving genetic and forensic quandaries, and conquering tricky logic problems at Foxcroft School's K2M Expedition: The STEM Summit.

When the fun-filled day was over, Foxcroft and Norwood School (Bethesda, MD) had captured the high and middle school titles, respectively; a score of other girls had won prizes ranging from iTunes gift cards and a massage to a Kindle Touch; and just about every one of the 150 people involved was wearing a K2M t-shirt and a smile.

"I had very high expectations for the day," said one middle school student, holding her hand chin-high and then raising it above her head and adding, "but this went way above them!"

"It was an outstanding day for all involved," said Foxcroft Head of School Mary Louise Leipheimer. "What these girls can do with math, science and technology is amazing. I don't know when I've been so proud of our school."

The STEM Summit attracted a breadth of talented students from Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC, with 19 high school and 12 middle school teams participating in the all-girl competition. Working in teams of 3 or 4, students solved problems that draw on STEM skills. Challenges included engineering a brick wall with the longest possible overhang, mixing chemical solutions to identify each element, solving a genetics problem called "Who's Your Daddy?" and conquering tricky logic problems. The middle school competition also included a forensics exercise that involved analyzing fingerprints and fiber samples.

Sponsored by K2M, Inc., a Leesburg, VA firm that develops technological innovations for surgeons to treat the world's most complex spinal disorders, the event included two of the company's young engineers who conducted one of the STEM Summit events, and CEO Eric Major came to observe.

"We were so impressed with the energy, enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity of the Foxcroft girls who visited our lab last spring," said Major, referring to a field trip by the School's Engineering and AP Biology classes to learn about K2M innovative engineering, "So we thought partnering with Foxcroft to sponsor this event made a lot of sense."

Foxcroft's leadership in STEM education was a prime motivator for creating the event. "Providing an environment that combines the use of academic skills to solve exciting real-world with competition in a team setting can be powerfully motivating," said Foxcroft's Science Department Chair, Dr. Maria Eagen, who holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences. "By offering this event every year, we hope that participating schools will develop programs that help their students be more competitive. Ultimately, we hope that it will foster a life-long love of the STEM fields."

The high school Summit concluded with a luncheon at which medals and other prizes were awarded to the champion "Derivative" team of Chloe Jung, Cindy Li, Lexy Lu, and Hazel Yan of Foxcroft. The Incomplete Dominators of Loudoun Valley High, Emma Thomson, Christine O'Mara, and Jenn Harris placed second. Third place ended in a tie between Middleburg Academy's Zephyr team (Justine Lee, Joanna Guo, Cheyenne Sams and Cayla Schnebele) and Madeira's Nova entry (Devin Williams, Hang Yin, Lydia Parker and Lijing Fang).

Team Derivative won two of the five individual events while Nova, and Tangent, a Foxcroft team comprised of Melody Kabbai, Alicia Gordon, and Olivia Saez, each won one. (The fifth event ended in a 9-way tie.) Jung, Amy Edgemond (Foxcroft), Meredith Markwood (Georgetown Visitation), and Morgan Hadlock (Wakefield School) also won prizes for a combination of brains and luck: They solved problems offered during the breaks in the team competition to earn a place in a raffle for the prizes – and were drawn out of the hat!

In the afternoon, Norwood's "Dimension" team of Olivia Cong, Carolyn Hoover, Susanna Bradbury, and Neelam Shaikh took first overall among 12 middle school teams. Loudoun Country Day's "Pi" team (Rachel Wilmans, Lindsey Rust, Emily Cleland, and Megan Mazzatenta) placed second, while third went to Immanuel Christian's "Mitosis" entry (Sarah Christopherson, Natalie Jones, Rita Bodrog and Emma Yergat.

Math Department Chair Susan Erba and Science Chair Maria Eagen, PhD, led their colleagues in organizing the event. Members of Foxcroft's Math Club and other volunteers welcomed the visitors and helped make sure the event ran smoothly.