Hands-on science

WASILLA — Science savvy students took center stage Saturday as Teeland Middle School hosted the 2008 Alaska Science Olympiad.

The event, a fun day of education and experimentation, drew nearly 500 students from 15 schools to compete in the state competition. Overall, middle school students competed in 27 categories and high school students in 25. Mike Shea, state director of Science Olympiad, called the competition is a chance for students to show off their knowledge and skills.

“It’s a national science competition that puts science into the hands of kids,” said Shea, a seventh-grade science teacher at Teeland. “They get to learn a ton of different aspects of science and they get to delve into it in a way they can’t in the classroom. You see kids that don’t always excel in the classroom, but they do well at something like this.”

Brandon Olson, a seventh-grader at Teeland Middle School, is a repeat Science Olympian. Last year, he placed second in the statewide tower competition — an event that requires students to build and test the efficiency of homemade balsa wood towers. After building the structures, students place up to 15 kilograms of sand into a bucket that is attached to the tower. The more weight a structure can hold, the better.

In addition to his second-place finish last year, Olson was third at nationals in the bottle rocket event.

“I didn’t know how big of a accomplishment getting to nationals was, but it sunk in later when a whole bunch of eighth-graders didn’t get in,” Olson said.

Although the Olympiad includes fields of study that test students’ knowledge on subjects like ecology and meteorology, Olson said he prefers the building aspect of the competition.

“I really like the ‘build it’ events because they’re more hands-on than the ‘book it’ events,” he said.

This year, Olson participated in six events, including robo-cross, towers and trajectory. While the trajectory competition didn’t turn out to well for Olson, he fared well in robo-cross. With a modified remote control bulldozer, he earned 63 points out of 108 by pushing ping pong balls, batteries and Legos into a designated area.

Brandon’s mother, Kathy Olson, attended the Olympiad to watch Brandon and her younger son, Tyler, compete. With two sons in the Science Olympiad, it was an exhilarating and eventful day.

“It’s exciting because they have learned so much,” Katy Olson said. “The coaches are really knowledgeable and it’s nice to have good coaches.”

Not only was it exciting to see her kids compete, she also said the event also provides an enthusiastic learning atmosphere.

“If you have a child that is not a patient child, it teaches them a lot of patience and it teaches them teamwork too,” she said. “It’s not just about a single person, it’s about the whole group and how well they do.”

With that in mind, Olson commented on the fact that Tyler, a sixth-grader, was at the time holding the lead of the tower competition — the same event Brandon placed second in last year.

“Well, he did good last year, but it’s good to be first on one thing,” Tyler Olson said.

Jessica Njaa, a freshman at Wasilla High School, said she began participating in Science Olympiad in eighth grade.

“I first found out about it last year from my science teacher and it sounded like something fun to do,” Njaa said.

Even though Njaa didn’t win any medals during her first year, she said it was worth the hard work because she can experience something new and fun. This year, she chose four events disease detective, write it do it, boomilever and herpetology.

Schools participating in the Alaska Science Olympiad will compete for a spot in the Science Olympiad National Tournament held at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., May 30-31. Final results of this weekend’s 2008 Alaska Science Olympiad were not calculated by press time Saturday.

Contact Chris Gillow at chris.gillow@frontiersman.com or 352-2284.