Science Olympiad is a club advised by Mrs. Geers that competes in science competitions in many different categories, including anatomy, meteorology, chemistry, ecology, forensics, and many others. Teams of two or three compete in different events which are either more hands-on or more test-like. Owen Smolek (‘20) competes in building categories like Gravity Vehicle and believes “You get out of it what you put in, because it’s a lot of testing and hypothesizing and rebuilding. If you don’t put in the time, you won’t get the results you want. [Building events are] a lot more engineering-based versus knowledge-based. They’re a lot more hands-on, which is nice for visual learners.”
The team’s goal this year is to compete at the Michigan State Science Olympiad Competition. Executive Board member Ritwik Mujumdar (‘20) commented, “It’s fun. They’ve got events about space, which is always a good thing.”
This past Saturday, the team attended the University of Michigan’s Science Olympiad Invitational. The team split up and competed in each of the twenty-three events that day in the different categories. Emma Smolek (‘20) competed in Fossils, Ornithology, and Dynamic Planet, placing 6th in Ornithology with Owen Smolek. She commented, “the competition was fun, especially in fossils. They had a lot of actual specimens you could look at. I like Science Olympiad because you can focus on something you really like and learn about something you wouldn’t normally learn about. You also know you won’t get every question right at the competition, which is nice.”
Several other students placed as well. Owen Smolek and Wyatt Donley (‘20) placed 8th in gravity vehicle, and Rik Mujumdar and Rushil Talla (‘20) placed 4th in Detector Building.