ST. CLOUD -- A group of fourth-graders from STRIDE Academy brought home a STEM award last month.

The five-student team started worked together virtually every week from November to March as competitors in the Minnesota Zoo’s ZOOMS STEM Design Challenge. Around 3,000 students from around Minnesota participated in the challenge where they worked to solve a problem facing zookeepers.

This year’s topic was developing enrichment for nine-year-old red panda Min to help her increase her activity levels and explore more of her enclosure. The STRIDE team was one of 35 invited to participate in exhibition week where they finished in third place and took home the Wolf Pack Award.

The Award recognizes a team who had strong collaboration throughout the challenge and was receptive to feedback to improve their design.

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