Science Olympiad continues successful run
On March 7, the Science Olympiad team celebrated its outstanding performance at the Madison Regional tournament. The team will be getting ready for the state tournament, which will be held on March 22.
March 9, 2014
After an outstanding performance at the Madison Regional tournament on March 1, the members of Jefferson’s Science Olympiad team hope to continue their success at the upcoming state tournament, which will be held on March 22.
At the regional tournament, all of the three divisions in the team placed in the top five. The blue team won the tournament by placing first, while the red and white teams placed third and fourth, respectively.
“I am very proud of what we accomplished at Regionals,” senior Sparsh Gupta, the captain of the team, said. “TJ as a school has won Regionals for a few years now, but this year the three teams did well individually.”
The team is currently planning to concentrate heavily on polishing the members’ skills for the state tournament, which will be held at Madison High School. The team hopes to defend the state champion title that they won last year and also be eligible to participate in the national competition, which will be held at the University of Central Florida on May 16-17.
“I hope we are able to replicate our States performance from last year,” Gupta said. “I definitely think the team is strong enough, but there are a lot of factors that are out of our control.”
The team, which includes three subdivisions of 15 members, prepares for the tournaments by focusing specifically on each member’s participating events. A total of 23 various events are showcased in the competition, including Designer Genes, Astronomy and Entomology.
Science Olympiad boasts a 30-year legacy of serving as the bedrock of enhancing and promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in students from sixth to 12th grade. At Jefferson, the team hopes to pursue its goal by joining the annual Techstravaganza event, which will be held on April 5.
“I think the most beneficial aspect of Science Olympiad is the fact that you learn so much through studying the events,” Gupta said. “Team members enjoy studying for the competition, and by the end of the season we become experts in our event subjects.”
