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Madison County, Jefferson County and Taylor County high school students attended a FloridaLearns STEM Scholars Design Challenge and Competition at the North Florida Community College Public Safety Academy on Jan. 30. For the competition the students were asked to construct a chain-reaction Rube Goldberg machine that would be judged on key elements of design, creativity and effectiveness. The goal of the activity was to teach academic skills as well as soft skills such as networking, problem solving, communication and teamwork that are essential to success. The FloridaLearns STEM Scholars program is Florida’s rural STEM education initiative coordinated by the Panhandle Area Educational Consortium (PAEC), in partnership with the Heartland Educational Consortium (HEC), and the North East Florida Educational Consortium (NEFEC). For more information, visit floridalearnsstemscholars.org.