Good News: Sni-A-Bar students win 3rd place in the "Battle of the Brains" and receive $20,000 grant

Sni-A-Bar Elementary students were among hundreds of students who attended the "Battle of the Brains" awards ceremony on January 23rd, and the team placed third for their "Disasster Strikes" proposal, winning a $20,000 grant for the school. Earlier in the school year, they were named Top 20 out of 740 big idea submissions in the Kansas City area in Burns & McDonnell’s STEM competition.

The 2023-24 competition included more than 6,800 students from 245 schools across 50 school districts throughout the Kansas City region. Judges — STEM professionals from Burns & McDonnell and Science City — followed an evaluation process to rank entries according to specific criteria, ranging from creativity and inspiration to how interactive and engaging the exhibit would be for visitors. 
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“All of the students’ proposed exhibits were amazing — it was really hard to pick a winner,” George Guastello, president and CEO of Union Station said. “Battle of the Brains is an incredible program that has transformed Science City into a museum full of STEM activities for kids of all ages.”

Delta Woods Middle School in Blue Springs won the competition with its ElectroMAGNIFICENT! entry.

The Burns & McDonnell Battle of the Brains competition is one of the nation’s most unique K-12 STEM programs, with thousands of students competing to pitch their unique classroom idea for a permanent exhibit at Science City. Student participation has nearly tripled since the first competition in 2011.
Burns & McDonnell has designed and built seven major exhibits that have transformed Science City, or more than half of the nearly 100,000 square feet of the science center’s interactive exhibit space.

Students from Sni-A-Bar Elementary School celebrated their third place win in the Battle of the Brains competition. The school was awarded a $20,000 grant in honor of the team's winning entry. Photo credit: Grain Valley Schools