Science Olympiad Competes At State
Launch the media gallery 1 player - media #1On April 28, 2018 nine junior high students who had previously earned the right to advance from regionals went on to compete in eight events at the State Science Olympiad at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. Students attending competed in the following events: Ecology (Ryelin Hulet & Kason Butler), Fast Facts (Sofia Nunn & Quincy Crone), Mystery Architecture (Cooper Teel & Sam Coin), Optics (Cooper Teel & Kason Butler), Road Scholar (Cooper Teel & Connor McCartney), Rocks and Minerals (Ryelin Hulet & Jillian Plymell), Thermodynamics (Lillian Carter & Sofia Nunn) and Write It/Do It (Quincy Crone and Jillian Plymell). Competition was tough with schools of every size coming from across the state competing against one another, and our students represented our school well. One team (Thermodynamics) was unable to be ranked due to event staff error over the entire event at both the JH/HS level. Of the other seven teams, one team (Rocks and Minerals) ranked right around the 50th percentile, with three teams (Road Scholar, Mystery Architecture, Write It/Do It) all placing in the top 25% of all teams. Cooper Teel and Sam Coin did exceptionally well and actually brought home the third place medal in Mystery Architecture, making the school and team quite proud.
Mystery Architecture is an on-the-fly construction event requiring strong problem-solving abilities where students have to utilize spatial awareness, along with physics principles, and engineering skills. Teams that compete in this event have to practice with a variety of different materials as on the day of the event they are given any number of variety of random supplies (straws, toothpicks, tape, and cotton balls) and then told to build a complex structure that meets certain guidelines, all of which is of course also a secret until students enter the room for the event. During competition students may be asked to build anything from a tower, to a weight supporting bridge, to a cantilever or trebuchet, and anything in between and beyond. Students have to pull from their previous practiced knowledge base while working in a timed environment to showcase their skills with these less than ideal materials. The event is fun yet quite challenging and the only things students are allowed to bring to it are ruler, scissors, and a pair of pliers. Strong critical-thinking skills are a must as competitors must not only anticipate how their structure will be challenged by the laws of physics, but then make corrections for it as they go. These boys did a great job thinking outside the box at both regionals and state and should be quite proud of their accomplishment.
Submitted by advisor, Tuanette Hulet
