March 20: Minnesota State Mankato to Host 5th-12th Grade Regional Engineering Machine Design Contest

Friday, March 20, 2026
8:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Centennial Student Union Ballroom

Mankato, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato’s College of Science, Engineering and Technology is the host of the Minnesota State Engineering Center of Excellence’s Regional Engineering Machine Design Contest for 5^th through 12^th-grade students Friday, March 20.

The event is free and open to the public and will be held on campus in Centennial Student Union’s ballroom. The tentative schedule is:

• 8:30 a.m. Teams arrive and machine set-up
• 9:30 a.m. Welcome and contest overview
• 9:45 a.m. Final machine tune-up
• 10:35 a.m. Team judging starts
• 11:45 a.m. Lunch
• 12:30 p.m. Presentation of awards

(NOTE TO EDITORS: Media interested in covering the event should contact Joann Jaqua by phone at 507-389-1257 or by email at joann.jaqua@mnsu.edu.)

Student teams will compete in either the junior (5^th-8^th grade) or senior (9^th-12^th grade) division of the contest. Participating teams are from Canby High School (Canby); the International Spanish Language Academy (Edina); Southland High School (Adams); and the Worthington Christian School (Worthington).

The Engineering Machine Design Contest invites students to design and build complex machines that connect science, technology, engineering and mathematics with arts and creativity. Teams are evaluated on team presentation, team journal and machine design and operation.

As part of this year’s event, Worthington Christian School students will be bringing machines to participate in a 2x2 Engineering Machine Contest, in which participants design and build a working chain-reaction machine that fits inside a 2-foot by 2-foot by 2-foot space. Individuals or pairs in grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 and adults may participate.

Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 15,721 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 26 colleges and seven universities.