West Advances to State Science Olympiad

Bottle rockets flew through the air, forensic mystery cases were solved, and the trajectory of lasers were mapped out all in one day.

On Saturday, March 25, six Henderson County Public Schools participated in the 2017 UNC Asheville Regional NC Science Olympiad. Early College, East Henderson, North Henderson, and West Henderson high schools, as well as Flat Rock and Rugby middle schools sent their Science Olympiad teams to battle against teams from 15 other counties, and against each other. In total, nine middle schools competed in their level, and 17 high schools battled it out.

West Henderson High came away with 2nd Place Overall in the high school Varsity division, and Rugby won 3rd Place Overall in the middle school Varsity division. West will be headed to the State Science Olympiad on April 25 at NC State University.

On Saturday, the events were held simultaneously during various times, and participants were given an hour in each event. Participants chose ahead of time which event they were going to compete in during specific time slots, and spectators trekked across the UNCA campus to check out every single event.

In preparation for the big day, schools had planned, trained, studied, and practiced Science Olympiad. Throughout the year, school clubs or teams meet to make sure they are prepared for the ultimate tournament. Bobby, president of the Science Olympiad Club at West Henderson High, said that his team had been putting together practices and labs since September.

Even with half a year of training, the Science Olympiad contests always deliver the unexpected.

Beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, herds of students left their designated homerooms to their competition posts or to watch their teammates. Many of the competitions were planned to include an element of surprise the day of the event, including the Electric Vehicle competition.

Teams came prepared with an electric vehicle that could move quickly, but the catch was they did not know how far the car would have to go, said Tom Savage, science teacher at the Early College. Students had to program their vehicles to reach whatever distance dictated on the day of the event by judges, who ran down the track with timers, following the cars while the students held their breaths.

Regardless of how prepared a team may be, practice is key at the Science Olympiad.

This year’s tournament was Rugby Middle School’s 11th year at the Regional Science Olympiad, but students were still practicing during the “homeroom” down time in between events. Brooks, on Rugby Middle’s team, spent his break creating a structure out of wooden sticks and adhesive materials. He said he was building a structure for the Towers event, for which students had to bring self-made structures capable of holding a bucket of sand.

Two floors down, the Henderson County Early College team was getting ready for a different event. Arianna was making alterations to the bottle rocket the school created, by taping a bottle cap to its side. She said the teams hadn’t known the judges were going to put an altimeter on the rocket. Arianna described the altimeter as “a microchip that goes inside to see how high and how long the bottle stays in the air.”

For other schools, the entire Science Olympiad environment was completely new. It was North Henderson High’s first ever Science Olympiad. Earth and Environmental Science Teacher Ian Selig was there with 10 students and said, “It would be awesome to win some things, but we’re just testing the waters.”

Early College’s Junior Varsity team received First Place Overall Winner in the Codebusters event, while the Varsity team won First Place in Astronomy. East Henderson High’s team won two First Place Overall Winner awards in the Materials Science and Microbe Mission events and came in 4th Place Overall in the high school Varsity division – just shy of being eligible to advance to State. Individuals who earned a First Place Overall Winner award in specific events advance to the State Tournament for the events they won, and the top three high school Varsity and top two middle school Varsity teams advance to State to compete in the entire tournament.

The West Henderson High Varsity Team received First Place Overall Winner awards in the Amazing Mechatronics, Chem Lab, Duct Tape Challenge, Ecology, and Electric Vehicle events – which earned them 2nd Place Overall in the high school Varsity division. They also received a State Bid allowing the team to represent West Henderson High School at the state tournament at NC State University. Rugby Middle School received First Place Overall Winner in the Meteorology and Write It, Do It events, and won got 3rd Place Overall in all middle school Varsity teams.

Congratulations to our Science Olympiads, who embody Albert Einstein’s wisdom, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

(Written by Alex Ramirez, Early College, Public Information Office Intern, HCPS.)