These KC students just won $50K for their school’s STEM efforts — and exhibit space in Science City

Winning the $50,000 grand prize at Burns & McDonnell’s Battle of the Brains competition made for the best school day ever, shared Reese Moreno, a member of the victorious Delta Woods Middle School team.

Delta Woods Middle School students react to their team winning Burns & McDonnell’s Battle of the Brains competition; photo courtesy of Burns & McDonnell

“This is mind blowing,” she explained Tuesday after the awards ceremony at Union Station in Kansas City. “The moment they announced third place, I was like, ‘We aren’t gonna win this.’ And then they announced our name and I was like, ‘Oh my god, we actually won this.’”

Out of 740 proposals from more than 6,800 students across 245 schools in 50 school districts throughout the Kansas City region, Delta Woods Middle School’s “ElectroMAGNIFICENT!” rose to the top, earning the Blue Springs District school a $50,000 grant toward STEM education and the opportunity to work with professionals at Burns & McDonnell to transform its proposal into a $1 million exhibit at Science City.

“It is surreal and amazing,” said Annalisa Stonner, who served as the winning group’s team leader. “I don’t think it’s set in yet, but I am so proud of these kids.”

The top 20 finalist teams in the STEM competition were honored at the awards ceremony and each earned a share of more than $150,000 in grant money, according to Burns and McDonnell. 

Lawrence’s Free State High School took home a second place prize of $25,000 with its proposal “Nature’s Blueprint: A World of Animal Architects.” The third place prize of $20,000 went to Grain Valley’s Sni-A-Bar Elementary School’s “Disaster Strikes.” Turner High School’s “Unveiling the Spectrum” earned $15,000 and KCKPS Quest’s “The Might of Flight” took home $10,000. 

“What excites me about these students is that they’re asked to design anything or come up with any idea and they do this in such a creative way with not a lot of guidelines, which is sometimes harder to do,” noted Julee Koncak, community relations director for Burns and McDonnell. “You see all the ideas and you see all the students and it makes you excited for the future.”

Leslie Duke, CEO of Burns & McDonnell, addresses students, parents and school officials gathered for the Battle of the Brains event at Union Station; photo courtesy of Burns & McDonnell

ElectroMAGNIFICENT! — the winning proposal — explores STEM concepts by highlighting the everyday applications of the electromagnetic spectrum, according to Burns and McDonnell. The team’s proposal included elements like a laser maze that would show how light interacts with matter, a treasure hunt to reveal the hidden elements of ultraviolet light, how light energy is transferred into heat energy, and how to use a prism to create white light.

A crowd of students and school officials cheer on winners at Burns & McDonnell’s Battle of the Brains competition; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

“I like it because it shows how fun science can be,” Delta Woods student Jacen Adams said.

Teammate Tristan Bray noted that the part that he worked on is a race against the speed of light.

“It’s unique,” he continued. “You run as fast as you can, then you touch your pod, and then it tells you how fast you ran in a matter of seconds. Then it shows you how fast you were compared to how fast light would have traveled.”

The team’s exhibit is set to open at Science City in spring 2025.

“I think that it’ll be incredible for them to realize that they have their mark on Science City and the pride that comes with that,” said Stonner, who led the team along with Brendon Riggs.

The 14-member Delta Woods team included Jacen Adams, Natalie Argubright, Jonah Black, Jeremiah Bolin, Tristan Bray, Max Brown, Jackson Candy, Douglas Castle III, Gavin Johns, Aidan King, Annie Luu, Reese Moreno, Kara Sexton, and Dylan Schauffler.

Since Burns and McDonnell launched Battle of the Brains in 2011, 39,000 students have submitted 4,700 proposals, which have been built into seven exhibits at Science City. Raytown Challenge’s 2021 submission “Riveting Robots” opened at Science City in September 2023.

“The bigger and broader engagement and investment into the community and the school districts has just been amazing to see,” Koncak noted. “Students have participated in this competition now for over 13 years. And we hear from them that they’re in some kind of STEM field and they’re working at Burns and Mac. It’s so fun to hear. It’s working for them. It’s just a wonderful program that we’re really, really fortunate to be able to host for the community and we love it.”

Check out more photos from the Burns & McDonnell’s Battle of the Brains event below from Startland News reporters Nikki Overfelt Chifalu and Taylor Wilmore.