This year, Science Olympiad placed second at their Regional competition on March 10 and will be moving on to the State competition this year on April 28.

Science Olympiad moved on from their invitational at Loyola Academy on February 3, and now they
have earned second and will be moving on again for State.

“Practice every week is about an hour, and at each practice, we are either studying new material or taking practice tests to refresh our skills and check what we have and have not learned well,” said junior Zach Ravn.

Science Olympiad offers a variety of events, and the scores of all events are added together to determine the team’s placement at a competition.

“There are twenty-three different events that our entire Science Olympiad team participates in that cover a range of science topics: Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Physics, Anatomy and Physiology, Environmental Science, etc. I personally coach the Write It Do It event. This is a partner event. One partner is provided with a pre-made model. He or she must write a detailed description of how all of the pieces of the model are connected together. The other partner sits in a separate room and is given his or her partner’s written description and must build a replica of the model based on only those directions,” said coach Jennifer Grutza.

The team will compete at State on April 28.

“I’ve been doing Science Olympiad for seven years. I think it’s just fun. You learn new things. It’s a way to show off your knowledge, and you can learn some new skills in it too,” said team captain Abby Hsiao.

Science Olympiad has practiced many hours to get this far, and they hope to win at State.

“The Science Olympiad team members meet with their partners for each of their competition events in order to prepare for their Regional competition. For events that involve taking a written test or lab practical, students may need to do additional research about the topics for their events in order to become better prepared. Other events that require students to make devices prior to the competitions such as Towers, Hovercraft, Mission Possible, Helicopters or Mousetrap Vehicle meet each week in order to make modifications to their design in order to make it perform better at the next competition,” Grutza said.