Science Olympiad brings competition, fun to science

Science Olympiad is described by a student in the club as an environment of really motivated high school students who compete in a range of events about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Where they compete against other people in the state, nation, and even sometimes internationally.

As described by Bradley Paff, the Science Olympiad coach. It’s where up to fifteen students on a team work in groups of two or three on each event. There are twentyeight events from across a variety of science disciplines, and each student typically competes in three or four events. The club attends six to eight tournaments per year, with weekly practices to help prepare for those competitions.

Medford Area Senior High School has had the Science Olympiad team continuously since 1989. The club has finished in the top six at the state tournament in fourteen of the past twenty years, including the State Champions in 2017.

These events range from forensics, being given a scenario where you perform a series of tests in order to solve a crime. Codebusters, cryptanalysis (the art of deciphering coded messages) and decoding encrypted messages using cryptanalysis techniques for historical and modern advanced ciphers. To Bridge, designing and building a Bridge (Structure) meeting the requirements specified.

When students were asked about what they liked about Science Olympiad, one said this, “The reason I like Science Olympiad is because I come from an area in North Carolina where there were no STEM opportunities. It was something I always wanted to pursue. When I got here to Wisconsin. It was the first opportunity I got to exercise my interest in STEM that I’d ever seen in a school area.”

What other students said was that the club is fun. You get to compete with others and the people in it are awesome people to be around.

Tournaments are typically held at a high school or college campus, with the competition day broken into six blocks of time, and each event happens during a specific time block throughout the day. The main categories of events are: Biology, Earth & Space Science, Physical Science, Engineering, and Inquiry/Scientific Method. Within each category are four to six events. Each year a few events change to different topics, so that there is always a new challenge for students to tackle.

More examples of what events there are at this competition are the Forensics event. Students may be challenged with identifying several unknown powders, hair samples, fingerprints, etc. found at a fictitious crime scene. They will use these clues as evidence to select a suspect from a pool of options, along with answering test questions on various forensic science techniques. Some of the events are in the form of a written test, and students are often allowed a specific amount of resources that can be used on a given test. That may range from a single sheet of notes to an entire binder full, depending on the event.

Some students really enjoy the engineering events. Some of those engineering challenges for this year include. Building a robot that can move a variety of objects and place them in containers in specific locations. Building and launching a catapult-style device at targets over seven meters away with the greatest accuracy. Building and flying a rubber-band powered airplane that will stay in the air the longest. Building a non-electric time-keeping device that can be used to indicate intervals of time up to five minutes.

When Paff was asked why students should join Science Olympiad, he said, “Students that are considering a career or college major in a science or engineering field, benefit from Science Olympiad by having the chance to learn about branches of science that are not covered in our regular science courses. It gives students a chance to explore possible career paths and to build up their resumé, giving them a better idea of what they want to do after high school, as well as a better chance of being accepted into their desired program. Some students like the challenge of the competitions; some join us for the social connections and the friendships they find with the team. We do have a competitive varsity team, but there is plenty of room on our junior varsity team for students who just want to try to see what it’s like. If you like science or are good at it, I encourage you to give it a try.”