Winchester Thurston’s Science Olympiad has started the competition season! After back to back invitational competitions two weekends in a row, the team is prepared to move on to Regionals and (hopefully) States!
Now, we realize you might be wondering: what even is Science Olympiad? It’s a science competition for students interested in various science and engineering topics, with events ranging from building bridges to studying types of trees.
In order to test our knowledge and practice builds, Division B and Division C competed at two invitational competitions. The Division B team consists of sixth, seventh, eight, and several ninth graders, and the Divison C team is the rest of high school. Here are the results from our first two competitions:
January 13th, Science Olympiad At Penn State(SOAPS)(Division B and Division C):
- Aniya Padiath and Rohan Sadashiv: second in Fast Facts
- Paul Mocker and Sam Hammons: third in Dynamic Planet
- Indie Pascal and Lucy Bair: third in Write it Do it
January 20th, students competed at the Pitt invitational for Division B:
- Sami Alissa and Sam Hammons placed fourth in Anatomy and Physiology
- Lucy Bair, Indie Pascal, and Teddy Glass placed third in Codebusters
- Arhaan Padiath and Jamie Kochupura placed fourth in Disease Detectives
- Paul Mocker and Sarah Levin-Decanini earned fourth in Dynamic Planet
- Paul Mocker and Vyas Prabhakaran placed fifth in Ecology
- Aniya Padiath and Claire Ding placed third in Fast Facts
- Sam Hammons and Vyas Prabhakaran placed fourth in Fossils
- Sarah Levin-Decanini and Sami Alissa placed fifth in Meteorology
- Gabe Lipson and Yuehan Ren placed fifth in Microbe Mission
- Jesse Guo and Claire Ding placed fourth in Optics
- Clara Gordon and Sami Alissa placed fifth in Tower
- Jesse Guo and Teddy Glass earned fourth in Wind Power
- Indie Pascal and Lucy Bair placed fifth in Write It Do It
Overall, the Division B team came in fifth place!
January 20th, Division C attended the Carnegie Mellon University Invitational:
- Joya Nasr and Hannah Hammons placed first in Disease Detectives
- Andrew Shlomchik and Yazan Alissa got fourth place in Anatomy and Physiology
- Vanessa Gonzalez-Rychener, Jack Iyer, and Solvei Islam got sixth placed in Codebusters
- Andrew Shlomchik and Nicky Gandhi got fifth placed in Dynamic Planet
- Felix Gamper and Hannah Hammons got fourth in ecology
- Adrian Musekamp and Felix Gamper got fourth in Fermi Questions
- Nicky and Rachel Valenty got fourth in Geologic Mapping
- Felix Gamperand Alice Bussler placed second in Microbe Mission
- Nicky Gandhi and Rachel Valenty placed second in Astronomy
- Alice Bussler and Joya Nasr placed second in Write It Do it
Overall, the Division C team came in ninth place!
Alice Bussler, reflecting on the invitational at Carnegie Mellon University said, “The competition went really well, and I think it was a huge shock to most of us, even those who really put in the effort to succeed, just how well we placed in our study events. It’s probably the most mind boggling experience I’ve had yet.”
But as said before, these two competitions are not the only ones in the season. The annual Regional and State competitions for Science Olympiad is only a month away! With Regionals being on March 16th, and States on April 27th, there is so much work to be done. The build events, such as Air Trajectory, Roller Coaster, Tower, Robot Tour, Wind Power, and Flight, needed to be modified and customized. Wooden mazes needed to be cut, cardboard adjusted to proper angles, and designs for holding the approximate amount of weight need to be reinforced. Students in study events also need to learn more and more information about their topic, or practice ciphering, describing, and even experimenting.
A final thanks to all of the event competitors and alternatives for their hard work! We are also so grateful to Mr. Meyer, who helped with build events, and Ms. Valenty, our amazing coach.
Go Bears!
