The Science Olympiad team competed in their last competition at state in Wichita this past weekend. Led by science teacher, Chad Brown, the students placed eighth overall with many placing well individually. The students work hard year-round to prepare for the various events and competitions, practicing anywhere from twice a week to five days a week based on when they have a competition. 

There were many good highlights of the weekend, but Brown put an emphasis on the ones he thought were the most noticeable. 

“There’s an event called Wright Stuff where they build a glider and our team got second in that event with a minute and 38-second flight so that was really, really good. Then we got second in Forensics, which is like a crime scene investigation type event and so both of those groups metaled,” Brown said. 

Junior Sydney Downey, one of 15 selected to compete at state, had a good weekend and felt successful after competing well in the various events. 

“We played pretty well overall, we got eighth, which was pretty good. Most of my events went pretty well, which was nice,” Downey said. 

There are many different events students can choose to compete in, Brown describes what some of those are. 

“There are 23 events every year. Each event is usually a partner event, so two people can do it. There’s occasionally one where three people will do the event. There are life sciences, there are medical-type events,” Brown said. “There are a lot of different categories, they compete throughout the course of an entire day and then show based on their performances in each of those events that total team scores tallied and then you place as a team. ”

Any student can compete in Science Olympiad; there are lots of opportunities to explore things in science. 

“You just show up in Brown’s room after school and he puts you on an event. Sometimes people leave like halfway through the year, some [people stay] the whole time. You just do events, which can either be build versions or test versions,” Downey said.