The Science Olympiad team, Pine View’s recently formed academic team, went to its first competition Jan. 23 at Hillsborough Community College (HCC). The team, which consists of eight members, placed ninth overall out of the 25 teams that competed.
Science Olympiad is a national science competition available to middle- and high-school students. Pine View, however, only has a high school Science Olympiad team. The events that take place at these competitions are in physics, chemistry, Earth Space Science, biology and engineering. There are three types of events that students engage in: lab-based events, research-based events and prebuilt events. Lab-based events require students to complete a lab activity during the competition. Research-based events encourage students to prepare materials prior to the competition and utilize them in the event. Prebuilt events are engineering events in which students construct a device to accomplish a task or goal and the device is tested at the competition. Pine View participated in all events except the prebuilt events.
The team’s president, twelfth-grader Grace Wickerson, formed the team with help from sponsor, biology and chemistry teacher Angela Keiper-Wilson, and funding from the Pine View Association (PVA). Pine View’s Science Olympiad Team includes tenth-graders Moses Glickman, Megan Morich and Emma Sanchez, eleventh-grader William Wang and twelfth-graders Jenny Li, Lisa Liu, Chris Newell and Wickerson.
In order for students to join the team, they have to submit applications, in which Wickerson thoroughly checks. “Based on our applications, Grace placed us in an event that we would perform well in,” Sanchez said.
For the competition, each member was assigned four to five events to prepare, since the competition contained 23 events that cover all types of sciences. Each member has a partner for the competition, making it easier for students to compete.
Individually, three sets of partners placed in different events within the competition. Wang and Li placed third in Forensics and placed first in completing a Chemistry lab. Newell and Liu placed third in Green Generation, an ecological test. Newell and Glickman placed first in Geologic Mapping.
“It was a great way to gain exposure to science while still having fun,” Morich said.