Three Loudoun County Schools Earn Top Three Placement in Their Divisions During Foxcroft’s 14th Annual STEAM Challenge

Foxcroft School, Harmony Middle School, and Mercer Middle School earned top three placements in their respective divisions by solving AI-inspired dilemmas during the “ChatFXC”-themed science, technology, engineering, arts, and math competition.

MIDDLEBURG, VA — Foxcroft School’s 14th annual STEAM Challenge saw Harmony Middle School (Hamilton, VA) and Mercer Middle School (Aldie, VA) take first and third place, respectively, in the middle school division, and Foxcroft took third place in the high school division (pictured above).

North Cross School (Roanoke, VA) and Bullis School (Potomac, MD) claimed first and second place in the high school division, and Norwood School (Bethesda, MD) took second in the middle school division to round out the top three spots in each. First-place teams received a robot kit and unique medals designed and fabricated by Foxcroft STEAM students using the laser cutter in The Innovation Lab. View the full list of winners here.

Designed for middle and high school students, this year’s competition saw 110 girl from 18 schools in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., spend the day using their STEAM knowledge, deductive reasoning skills, and common sense to solve challenges revolving around this year’s “ChatFXC” artificial intelligence theme. Energy and enthusiasm filled Foxcroft’s Athletic/Student Center, Schoolhouse Art Room, and Audrey Bruce Currier Library as the teams worked through five unique challenges.

In the art room at the “STEAM Building Scavenger Hunt” challenge (created and hosted by sponsors Hord Coplan Macht and Coakley Williams), teams navigated through a 360-degree video tour of Foxcroft’s Mars STEAM Wing build site to find all the items on their scavenger hunt list. In the “Free Fallin” challenge, participants used the library’s curved staircase to drop a tennis ball from various heights and record its drop time. They entered that data into an AI app and generated a mathematical model for the tennis ball’s motion, then compared their model with the true model to see how close they could get.

Back in the Athletic/Student Center, at the “Binary Brawl challenge,” teams worked to interpret the ones and zeroes of a message written in binary code and then write and encode a response. The “Art-i-ficial Creators” challenge asked groups to spot AI-generated artworks ranging from paintings and photographs to poems, then sketch a design inspired by their team name and use Canva Dream Lab to prompt AI to create art as close to their original idea as possible. Artificial intelligence like ChatGPT is great at generating text and stories, but is not yet proficient at math — particularly, recognizing patterns. The “Sequence Showdown” asked participants to decipher the ChatGPT responses as they tried to complete mathematical sequences.

The Hord Coplan Macht and Coakley Williams female engineers and architectural designer not only administered one of the challenges but also shared their experiences and answered questions from the young competitors during a career panel. Foxcroft is also grateful for the support of new sponsor REDLattice. Between challenges, students answered trivia questions and earned raffle tickets for prizes ranging from Owala water bottles to tech devices. During a session with Head of School Cathy McGehee, participants in the middle school competition learned a little more about Foxcroft’s focus on girls in STEAM.

A leader in STEAM education for girls, last year, Foxcroft announced plans for the construction of the Mars STEAM Wing to enhance its program to encourage girls to pursue studies in STEAM fields. The school offers an innovative curriculum that addresses challenges facing tomorrow’s workforce and provides relevant and stimulating learning experiences. A signature program at the school, the STEAM initiative emphasizes inquiry-based labs, using technology with confidence and ease, and hands-on problem-solving that extends well beyond the classroom. The annual STEAM Challenge showcases Foxcroft’s innovative focus on the STEAM fields.

Photos courtesy of Foxcroft School.

Posted on: April 1, 2025