This past Saturday, April 26, WT’s Science Olympiad team competed at the annual statewide competition at Penn State Altoona. The state of Pennsylvania has over three hundred science olympiad teams, making it one of the most competitive states in the country. The team qualified for this competition at the regional tournament on March 29, at which they earned second place!

Team members have been practicing since early in the school year. Preparations to compete include researching and taking notes on specific topics, prototyping and building, and taking practice tests.

This year, our Division C team (grades 9-12) placed 17th overall out of 36 teams. Competitors received medals for 10th place and above. Andrew Shlomchik and Yazan Alissa placed 7th in Anatomy, Joya Nasr and Andrew Shlomchik placed 8th in Disease Detectives, and Sami Alissa and Solvei Islam placed 10th in Material Science. 

Science Olympiad permits up to five ninth grade students to compete in Division B (grades 6-9). This year, those ninth graders are Aniya Padiath, Jayan Shah, Claire Ding, Arhaan Padiath, and Paul Mocker. They helped Division B place 11th overall. Jayan Shah and Zilin Liu (8th grade) placed 10th in Crime Busters, Claire Ding and Sylvie Casher (7th grade) placed 5th in Disease Detectives, Paul Mocker and Ezra White (7th grade) placed 9th in Ecology, and Claire Ding and Aniya Padiath placed 10th in Potions and Poisons.

Congratulations to all team members!