Foxcroft School's ever-popular Expedition K2M: The STEM Summit was a grand success Saturday, especially for the hosts! For the first time in the seven-year history of the girls-only, hands-on competition, Foxcroft teams swept the top three places in the high school division.

A team from St. Patrick's Episcopal School took the middle school championship, culminating a lively day in which some 150 girls from 21 schools took on a variety of science, technology, engineering, and math problems. All the challenges were centered around this year's theme, "Poacher, No Poaching" — animal conservation, endangered species, and problems like poaching.

"We hope that in addition to having a lot of fun, you will learn something about animal conservation today," said Dr. Maria Evans, chair of Foxcroft's STEM Department and director of the competition. "We are raising awareness so that you might leave here thinking about what you can do to speak up for animals who don't have a voice for themselves."

The Blue Whale Warriors team, comprised of Foxcroft seniors Morgan Hunt (Purcellville, VA), Saylor Hart (Keswick, VA), Cici Jackson (Chantilly, VA), and Pradyuta Padhamabhan (Chantilly, VA), won one of the five challenges and placed second and third in two others to claim the gorgeous school trophy, designed and made by sophomore Kenzie Green of Leesburg, VA.

In keeping with the theme, the trophy, medals, and huge stuffed animals awarded to the winning teams all represented endangered species.

Second place in the high school division went to Foxcroft's Gorilla Guardians team (juniors Sarah Elhilow, West Palm Beach; Lily Fortsch, Alexandria, VA; and Chloe Green, and her sister, Kenzie, both of Leesburg, VA), while the Narwhal Knights (senior Mia Barber, Fort Worth, TX: juniors Bella Bigelow, Middleburg, VA; and Sylvia Yuan, Ningbo, China; and sophomore Leslie Wang, Qingdao, China) took third.

The Komodo Dragons from Georgetown Visitation School in Washington, D.C., comprised of Catherine Connell, Katherine Fink, Mary Kolsar, and Kelly Owczarski, won two of the five challenges, while Anna Ehrenman, Claire Louderback, Skyler Powell, and Juliana Webster, competing for Solid Foundations Homeschooling, and a sophomore four-some from Foxcroft (Courtney Bartlette, Waldorf, MD; Bella Smith, Richmond, VA; Krissa Thorndike, Middleburg; and Joy Wu, Shanghai) won the others.

In the middle school division, a team from St. Patrick's Episcopal School in Washington, DC, name the Ivory Saviors (Louisa Kean, Jane White, Sarah White, and Lucy Weil.) took home the school title. The Tiger Trust from the Village School in Charlottesville placed second, followed by the Coral Conservationists from Loudoun County's Harmony Middle School. Teams from Powhatan School (Boyce, VA) and Chesapeake Academy (Irvington, VA) won individual challenges.

The annual competition, which is always filled to capacity, showcases Foxcroft's innovative and appealing focus on the STEM fields and allows girls to develop collaborative skills working with others and gain confidence in fields so often dominated by boys.

K2M, Inc., the Leesburg, VA-based bio-medical company that sponsors the event, runs one of the challenges each year and brings a team of female engineers to share their experiences and answer questions — an inspirational experience for the young competitors.

The energy and enthusiasm that filled Foxcroft's Athletic/Student Center and School-house Science Labs all day was inspirational as well. Competing in teams of three or four, girls took on five different challenges. They used math and physics to create conservatories for pangolins, the most poached species on earth. They used chemistry to distinguish fake and real specimens from a likely illegal animal transaction and decoded messages to stop poachers. In between the challenges they used Kindle Fires supplied by Foxcroft to answer questions and solve problems in an app created by Dr. Evans.

Foxcroft freshman Isobel Debenham, who volunteered to help with Math teacher Daniel Hales' "Lost in Translation" decoding challenge, couldn't contain her enthusiasm. "That was so much fun! I loved that!" she exclaimed. "I'm totally competing next year." Based on the smiles and zeal shown by the rest of the participants, it's clear that no matter the role, everyone loves Expedition K2M.