Who killed Kay Daver? That was the question Saturday morning when more than 80 girls from 11 middle schools gathered at Foxcroft School for its one-of-a-kind, super-fun, girls-only, science, technology, engineering and math competition, Expedition K2M: The STEM Summit.

But murder was just one of many mysteries as girls used logic, chemistry, biology, math and physics to master six separate challenges created by Foxcroft's math and science faculty and engineers from K2M Inc, a Leesburg, Virginia biotech engineering company.

Participants also solved brainteasers and arithmetic problems to earn chances in drawings for special prizes; figured out who, how and where poor Kay was killed; were hosted by Foxcroft students, and enjoyed donuts, pizza and snacks -- generally having a terrific time.

In the end, Harmony Middle School of Purcellville, Virginia took home the Best Team Trophy, thanks to the outstanding work of the "Bunsen Burner Beauties," who won two individual events and accumulated the most points overall. Powhatan School's "Marvelous Martians" were second overall and Blue Ridge Middle's "Stoichiometry Stars" placed third. The Zephyrs, a team from J Michael Lunsford Middle School, also won two events, while St. Patrick Episcopal's "Cranium" squad and Immanuel Christian's "Fine Cosines" cohort took one each. Three teams correctly solved the murder, and Mercer Middle's "Masters of Light" won the drawing among them to take home gift certificates.

This was the first year that the event had an overarching theme. Entitled "Mystery, Mayhem and Murder on the Mountain," the day began with a short video that told the tale of Kay Daver's murder while trying to climb to the summit of K2 with an odd assortment of companions. The video laid out possible murder weapons, feasible locations and the eight suspects -- who had names like Ally Bye, Bella Donnah and Anne Thrax and looked a lot like Foxcroft teachers.

The girls then became CSI detectives. Working in teams of three and four, they analyzed a liquid mixture (labeled "Stomach Contents") to figure out what the victim had eaten and with whom. They measured the density of different materials to narrow down the murder weapon. The "Slippery Slope" math and logic challenge, solved correctly, identified the crime scene and in the K2M challenge, competitors eliminated suspects by reading X-rays and dermatones to figure out who was physically incapable of making the climb. In "Base Ballast," teams had to get a helium balloon to reach the "summit" in 10 seconds exactly by adjusting its load of cotton balls.

Harmony's team, coached by Wendy Ricci, demonstrated outstanding math and logic skills in solving the "Slippery Slope" and the K2M Inc. challenges. Lunsford's Zephyrs – Masha Plugina, Haley Broga, Robab Newberry and Marissa Bell, coached by Jayne Bowen – triumphed in the Pick Your Poison chemistry event and Surviving K2M Expedition.

As far as the murder itself was concerned, just three teams solved the mystery correctly: No, the answer was not Col. Mustard in the Ballroom with the rope. It was Liza Lott at Camp #2 with an ice axe. After a drawing among the three, Mercer Middle Schools's Masters of Light (Shreya Sandela, Shreya Vinjanmuri, Samhitha Mada and Sanusha Suresh) took home gift certificates.

A score of girls collected prizes for a combination of brains and luck: they answered brainteasers and math problems to enter raffle drawings for such goodies as a Kindle Fire tablet, Beats headphones, A Vera Bradley bag and gifts cards for iTunes, Starbucks, Panera and the like.

The students also heard from Foxcroft Head of School Cathy McGehee, who emphasized the need for more women to go into STEM careers, and from K2M Director of Product Development Chris Straight who showed a cool video about the company's work in creating products to help doctors fix spinal injuries and malformations.

The competition was originally scheduled for late February, when the high school competition took place, but snow forced Foxcroft to cancel the afternoon middle school portion. Foxcroft's math and science teachers – six of whom are women, with two of those holding doctorates – refused to let the cancellation stand. They are passionate about exciting girls to try these fields that have traditionally been dominated by men. And they do a terrific job with a wonderful variety of science electives, many of which are project based, a state-of-the art STEM Lab and Engineering workshop and numerous co-curricular programs.

For more information, please contact the Foxcroft Admission Office at 540.687.4340.