Hundreds of high school and middle school students from central North Carolina will compete in science and engineering events at the annual Raleigh Regional Science Olympiad on Saturday, Feb. 13 at Garner Magnet High School.
Olympiad officials are expecting 60 middle and high school teams each with 15 – 18 members from Durham, Wake, Granville, Vance, Franklin, and Warren counties. Competing in 47 different events, the 30 middle school and 30 high school teams are vying for the opportunity to represent the region at the State Science Olympiad in Raleigh on April 23 and 24, hoping to represent North Carolina at the National Science Olympiad.
“We expect about 3,000 visitors on campus,” said Kim Gervase, co-director of the Science Olympiad. “We stress that the purpose of this competition is for students to learn. Everybody gets a chance to complete, but what matters most is their participation as a team.”
The North Carolina Science Olympiad (NCSO) is third largest in the country in the number of students participating. Currently, 250 middle and high schools representing over 6,000 students and 60 counties in North Carolina are participating in the NCSO. In 2009 alone, NCSO had over 5,000 volunteers involved in reaching middle and high school students for science.
The challenging and motivating events of the NCSO align with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study as well as the National Science Education Standards. The events are designed to enhance and strengthen both science content and process skills.
Some of the most popular events include:
Battery Buggy – Teams will construct a vehicle that uses electrical energy as its sole means of propulsion, quickly travels a specified distance, and stops as close as possible to center of the finish line.
Trajectory – Teams will design, construct, and calibrate a device capable of launching a projectile into a target area and collect data to develop a series of graphs relating launch-configuration to target distance and height.
“Students don’t just build complicated devices”, Gervase explained. “They participate in events that are meant to challenge their ability to solve problems and come up with answers to science-related subjects. Students prepare all year for this event and the atmosphere is electrifying. It is hard to believe this is an academic event, but it is awesome to see the young generation excited about learning, science, and being involved in team work.”
Local professionals, college students, and Wake County Public Schools System teacher volunteers will design events that will produce scores that result in an overall point total to determine first-. second-, third-, and fourth- place medal winners, with trophies from state and national organizations going to the top finishers in each division. Top finishers qualify to compete at the State Tournament held in Raleigh at N. C. State University. The top two placing teams at the State Tournament will advance to the National Tournament.
This is the 19th year Garner Magnet High School has hosted the Regional competition.
The North Carolina Science Olympiad (NCSO) is a nonprofit organization with the mission to improve the quality of science and technology education in all North Carolina schools.
For more information contact Co-Directors: Kim Gervase, Science Educator at kgervase@hotmail.com or Michael Tally, Science Supervisor, Wake County Public Schools at mtally@wcpss.net