Science Olympiad State Competition

The Science Olympiad is a competition where students work in partnerships competing in different disciplines in science that include chemistry, physics, biology, engineering and general science knowledge events. High school and middle school students competed at the state competition on Saturday, April 7th at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Historically, to say that Ames has dominated the State Science Olympiad would be an understatement. The Science Olympiad is like a track meet for science where a team of 15 students compete in 23 events with usually 2-3 students in each event. The more 1st places finishes the better, and the team with the lowest score wins. This year, 16 teams competed at state in the high school level and 18 at the middle school level.

Ames Middle School has been competing for the past 26 years and has won state 23 years. Ames High has been competing for 25 years and has won 24 times. Their only loss came last year and this year’s team was hungry to reverse that outcome.

To prepare for the state competition, both Ames teams competed in two invitationals this year. The first one was in early December at Boyceville, Wisconsin where there were a number of teams from different states that traditionally go to Nationals and do very well. In February, the teams traveled to Warrensburg, MO to compete in a second invitational. Ames Middle School finished 2nd at that competition and Ames High finished 7th against a number of very good teams. Peg Barbour, head coach of the high school team, said that these events were great preparation for the state competition. After last year’s loss, the teams were hungry to win.

Both Ames High and Ames Middle School finished first overall, earning the right to represent the state of Iowa at the national competition at Colorado State University in May.

The following are the events and students that finished in the top three places at the high school and middle school level:

High School

First Place Events

Helicopters – Seth Durbin and Taylor Xu

Materials Science – Victoria Kyveryga and Hannah Huang

Optics – James Lin and Steven Tian

Ecology – Nao Furukawa and Hannah Huang

Astronomy – Andres Cordoba and James Lin

Towers – Steven Tian and Taylor Xu

Hovercraft – Jasper Shogren-Knaak and David Kim

Rocks and Minerals – Seth Durbin and Victoria Kyveryga

Disease Detectives – Hannah Huang and David Jiang

Mousetrap Vehicle – Jason Chen and Davis Vertanene

 

Second Place Events

Mission Possible – Andres Cordoba and Nao Furukawa

Thermodynamics – Steven Tian and Taylor Xu

Dynamic Planet – Jason Chen and Eddie Wei

Forensics – Anyang Yu and Victoria Kyveryga

Fermi Questions – Andres Cordoba and David Kim

 

Third Place Events

Experimental Design – Jasper Shogren-Knaak, Jason Chen, Eddie Wei

Microbe Mission – Jasper Shogren-Knaak and Davis Vertanen

 

Middle School

First Place Events

Mystery Architecture – Henry Tang and Hannah Song

Anatomy – Rishabh Swamy and Anastasia Kuzmina

Towers – Henry Tang and Will Geisler

Meteorology – Hannah Song and Sophia Cordoba

Microbe Mission – Anastasia Kuzmina and Sivani Manamaran

Crimebusters  – Emily Poag and Quinn Harbison

Disease Detectives – Quinn Harbison and Sivani Manamaran

Road Scholar – Jo Venkatesh and Hannnah Song

Wright Stuff – Emily Poag and Isaac Fangmann

Optics – Jixiang Li and Henry Tang

Rocks and Minerals – Jerry Han and Aneesh Shrotrya

Dynamic Planet – Sophia Cordoba and Jo Venkatesh

 

Second Place Events

Solar System – Rishabh Swamy and Jixiang Li

Ecology – Sophia Cordoba and Aneesh Shrotrya

Experimental Design – Jerry Han, Sivani Manamaran, Jacob Xing

Herpetology – Anastasia Kuzina and Jacob Xing

 

Third Place Events

Hovercraft – Quinn Harbison and Jixiang Li

Potions and Poisons – Sivani Manamaran and Will Geisler

Write It/Do It – Jo Venkatesh and Emily Poag

Battery Buggy – Rishabh Swamy and Isaac Fangmann

Thermodynamics – Isaac Fangmann and Aneesh Shrotrya