TAME Clubs

Share your love for engineering and spark the curiosity in the next generation of diverse Texas engineers! 

TAME Clubs meet regularly (weekly, monthly, etc.), are offered at no-cost to students, and the TAME Club model can be adapted to your school or community group. 

Here’s how it works: The TAME State Office provides a research-backed curriculum and supplies for TAME Club activities. The supplies include materials needed to complete the activities in the curriculum, as well as funding to purchase additional supplies and snacks. 

Qualified TAME Clubs can compete in TAME’s Regional Engineering Competitions that begin in January each year. Graduating seniors who have participated in TAME are eligible to apply for TAME Scholarships. 

Any adult can sponsor a TAME Club*. If you are a parent, family member, teacher, librarian, community member, or engineering professional, you can register to lead a TAME Club in your community. Typically, TAME Clubs are based at schools and community organizations (e.g., Boys & Girls Club). 

*Club sponsors subject to a background check 

The theme for the 2024-25 TAME Club curriculum is Feats of Engineering Throughout Human History. 

Students will assume the roles of Construction, Civil and Agricultural engineers as they complete activities to advance through human history, from the Stone Age, through the Agricultural and Industrial revolutions, to the present day. Students will examine the engineering innovations that make modern cities possible and have allowed humans to overcome the natural world and sustain dense urban communities.

The 2024-25 TAME curriculum, or digital learning guide, also connects to the UN Sustainable Development Goals of Zero Hunger, Clean Water & Sanitation, Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure, and Sustainable Cities.

The 2024 competition theme is Engineering Survival on a Desert Island.
Drawing on activities in the curriculum, teams of TAME Engineers will tackle a design challenge focused on survival. Students will  work together to engineer solutions for shelter, water access, food sources, and protection. Following the activities in the 2024-25 TAME digital learning guide will prepare students for the competitions, which begin in January 2025.

In order to be eligible to compete in the annual TAME Engineering Competitions, each TAME Club must meet the following requirements:

• Have at least 6 student participants in grades 6 – 12
• Have regular meetings where students can strengthen skills and explore engineering and STEM with hands-on activities
• 60% of student members must be from TAME Focus Student groups that are underrepresented in STEM (Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Indigenous/Native American, or girls) OR be at a Title I school

Absolutely! As long as your group meets our requirements, your adult leader will be able to register your group as a TAME Club. To receive an invitation to participate in Engineering Competitions, your club will need to meet our criteria.

Here are some of the organizations whose leaders have also registered their groups as TAME Clubs (so far):

4-H
Austin Youth River Watch
BEST Robotics
Code Wars
FIRST Robotics
Future City Competition
Generation Hope
Girl Scouts
Homeschoolers Unlimited Texas (HUT)
Junior Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE, Jr.)
Latinos in Science and Engineering (MAES)
Lunar Cave Analog Test Sites (LCATS)
Science Olympiad
Solar Car Challenge
Team Rocketry America Challenge (TARC)
Texas Pre-Freshman Engineering Program
Vex Robotics

Since 1976, TAME has built partnerships like these to bring as many opportunities as possible to the students of Texas. Who else do you know who would have fun at an Engineering Competition? What groups in your community already have everything they need to register as a TAME Club? Encourage them to register a TAME Club!

No, TAME Club programming, as well as our regional engineering competitions and scholarship program, are offered at no cost to Texas students, families and volunteers.