Science Olympiad

story by Kelby Dressler ≫

On Saturday April 1, the Science Olympiad team traveled to Wichita State University to participate as state qualifiers. Winning teams are invited to Nationals to represent the state of Kansas.

Each year, the national tournament is held at a different university. This gives the qualified students the opportunity to visit new parts of the country and even tour some colleges they might consider for undergraduate studies.

Each school-based team is allowed to bring 15 students to each competition. Students compete in different events showcasing their knowledge.

While Science Olympiad can be just a fun extracurricular activity to explore specific topics, some students find events that correspond with similar career interests.

“I have always been interested in engineering and design, and making these projects has helped me towards that,” said Bobby Lounsbury, Soph. team member. “What we do for our projects is half brainstorming and half actual building.” Science Olympiad consists of a series of 23 team events in each division. Division B is middle school and Division C is high school.

“Scores are determined in a similar way that a track meet might be scored. Students earn medals in their individual events, but their results count towards a team score. Each student has a partner to work with on their event,” said Joe Pickett, Assistant Science Olympiad Coach.

Some of the events at a competition might  relate to Physical Science & Chemistry; Technology & Engineering; Inquiry & Nature Science; Life, Personal & Social Science and Earth Space Science.

Lounsbury previously had worked in the Technology & Engineering portion of the competition. “In the competition for Electric Vehicle, we have to build a model vehicle that will start and stop at a certain point. The problem is that we don’t know the distance it needs to go until we compete.”

Mr. Pickett loves watching students participate particularly in events related to physics and biology.

“It’s especially fun to see students get rewarded when they have worked hard on a project and do well in the competition,” said Pickett.