Northwood’s 2012 Science Olympiad team attended states for the first time and came in 21st out of 43 competing high schools. This came after placing first at regionals, April 28.
Northwood had three groups place in the top ten of their events: Francis Beroset and Adair London in the event Disease Detectives (seventh); Travis Shelton and Jeremy Raisig in Helicopter (10th); and Jeff Forbes and Adair London in Genetics (seventh).
This was only Science Olympiad’s third year, and its first time with a full team of 18 students.
Supervisor Victoria Raymond was elated about the increased participation in Science Olympiad and credits some of the team’s success to the ability to put members in every event.
“We were able to take a full team to states, which is important. I think we’re building and we’ll see more folks wanting to be a part of Olympiad, which makes me happy,” said Raymond.
A lack of participation in events results in a deduction of points for the overall team.
Depending upon the event, the amount of preparation needed varies. Some events, such as Genetics or Disease Detectives, require pre-made props for competition.
Senior Travis Shelton said that getting ready for regionals required a lot of work because they had to build everything from scratch; however, states was not as difficult because they already had their props made. Instead they only had to “redo” the helicopter in order to create a “better design.”
Team members met regularly, stayed after on half days, read their textbooks and took quizzes online to prepare.
“For the helicopter we met weekly with our coach, and for the gravity vehicle we tried to meet as often as we could,” said junior Jeremy Raisig. “We stayed on half days a lot and that seemed to work really well.”
This year also meant a new regional district, which changed Northwood’s competition to qualify for state. The change was made to help prevent some of the larger schools from stifling the success of smaller schools. Northwood took advantage of the change and took first place out of 17 schools at regionals.
Raymond sees Science Olympiad as a club that will stay grounded within Northwood by giving students an opportunity to compete in something they enjoy.
“I want Science Olympiad to become a fixture in Northwood,” said Raymond. [We are an] academically excellent [school] and this is a chance to put it out there.”
Freshman competitor Francis Beroset hopes to compete throughout high school and says that the competition is fun. Science Olympiad has also helped her narrow her career interests.
“I know I enjoyed Disease Detectives and I’m never going to work in the field of water quality or forestry,” said Beroset.
Raymond sees a bright future ahead for the Science Olympiad team. She hopes to expand, one day creating a JV team to compete, which would improve the strength of the team.
“Maybe someday we will get a JV team, because the JV team will go through the same competition,” said Raymond. “They [will] know what is expected, how to prep and how to do well, what’s not to love there? Perhaps if it’s a freshman on JV by the time they get to be juniors and make it to the varsity team, they [will be] that much of a stronger team.”
–Sterling Logan