Valley teams win Science Olympiad

WASILLA — Fresh off of wins in the statewide competition, a pair of Valley Science Olympiad teams are trying to raise enough money to compete at nationals.

“We’re in the process of trying to come up with $16,000 to $17,000,” said Tim Lundt, Science Olympiad coach for the state champion Mat-Su Career and Technical High School team. “It’s not necessarily that we’re going to win anything, but this year for the Career and Tech High School we have a chance to do as well as any Alaskan high school.”

Lundt said that the best Alaska has done was in the ’90s when Chugiak High School placed 32nd. These things are hard to predict, but he thinks that some of his competitors could reach the top 10.

At the state competition March 26, Career and Tech wasn’t the only Valley school to take top honors. Nearby Teeland Middle School also won state and is facing a similar fund-raising challenge.

Lundt said his team also has the potential of leaving a legacy. The team is heavy in underclassmen — a lot of freshmen and sophomores, as well as a few juniors.

“Those kids are going to be back next year and the year after and we can really make a run and show that Alaska has some very talented kids,” Lundt said.

For the unfamiliar — Science Olympiad contains written competitions in things like protein mapping and ornithology, but also building competitions where teams assemble things like helicopters, robots and mousetrap-powered model cars to compete with one another.

“There’s just a bunch of them that pretty much crosses the whole spectrum,” Lundt said. “It’s got events for all kids.”

And the victors don’t just come home with awards and bragging rights.

The national competition, held this year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, has some serious scholarships at stake.

“If you win a gold medal it’s worth a full ride scholarship to the University of Wisconsin,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a ninth-grader, 10th-grader or 11th-grader. They’re basically just waivers.”

The school district has decided to extend the program into elementary schools, 10 of which are fielding teams. Lundt said that shows the district also sees the value of the Science Olympiad program.

“This is a niche for kids to really go in and go for it and if they’re really good this is a good stepping stone,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.