Science Olympiad attends regional competition

On Saturday January 16th Aurora’s Science Olympiad Team traveled to Kenston High School for an annual invitational. Aurora was one of the fifty plus schools that attended this, and they ended up placing 29th out of all of the schools.

Science Olympiad competes in several of these invitationals every year hoping to eventually advance to the state competition at Ohio State University. The next step for the team is to attend and compete at the Solon competition, then Mentor, then regionals at University of Akron, and hopefully then the team excels enough to make it to states.

Senior Science Olympiad officer and four year veteran member of the team Christina Boehm said, “There were so many people at the invitational. Some schools obviously get more competitive than others with it, but everyone has a good time with their events.”

This year Aurora had enough students interested in joining the team that they have enough competitors to form two teams: an A team and a B team. Aurora has approximately thirty committed members this year.

Science Olympiad functions much like a football or soccer team, requiring preparation, commitment, coaching and practice throughout the year. Each school-based team is allowed to bring 15 students who cross-train for a variety of events in their skill set, but some school clubs have more than 75 members, allowing for an apprentice and mentoring system.

The Aurora High School Science Olympiad Team practices once a week on Wednesdays and each member must have put in an hour of studying each week in preparation for their competition events.

Each competition generally has two team members per school participate in the event together and collaborate. Some events consist of hands on activities, some consist of tests, while others require teams to build a model before the competition.

Senior Science Olympiad member Breanna Zepernick said “I was in three events this year which is pretty normal. The events we go to are fun, the only downside is waiting in between your events. It’s nice down time though to spend and prepare with your team.”

When one invitational is over one may think that the team has time to relax, but that does not hold true according to Senior Zach Francisco.

Francisco said, “Once the event is over and the next week rolls around it is time to continue practicing and studying and prepping yourself for the next competition.”

Science Olympiad takes their sport very seriously and is not to be underestimated because the students are not on an athletic team. Science Olympiad has proven the seriousness of their sport by excelling to the state level competition several years, and hope to go there this year.