Imagine hundreds of junior and senior high school students mixing chemicals, evaluating the effectiveness of gliders or manipulating robots through dexterity tests. It’s enough to make Bill Nye the Science Guy smile – students from many local school districts will converge Saturday, March 7, at Raymond Walters College to compete in the Cincinnati Regional Science Olympiad tournament.Similar to hotly contested athletic events, the Science Olympiad tests the academic mettle of student teams in 23 different events. Ranging from anatomy to ecology, from physics lab to meteorology, students rotate through a series of timed experiments designed to test their problem-solving skills as well as their subject knowledge.
This year, RWC is hosting one of eight regional tourneys, drawing students from the Greater Cincinnati area. Teams from Harrison, Ross, Finneytown, Lebanon, Wyoming, Lakota, Loveland, Kings, Mason and numerous others are slated to participate.
The students compete to win individual and school awards. First to sixth place medals will be awarded to students in each event and first to sixth place trophies will be awarded to the top teams in each division. Several teams will quality to compete at the Ohio State Science Olympiad Tournament to be held on Saturday, April 18 at the Ohio State University. Teams can reach the National Science Olympiad Tournament by placing in the top two at the Ohio State tournament.
Teachers, college professors, engineers, scientists and other volunteers from the community run the 46 different events and perform different duties during the tournament. The tournament is made possible by the generous support of the University of Cincinnati, Sycamore School District, and other companies.
The University of Cincinnati supports the Science Olympiad competition in conjunction with UCs new initiative in creating an environment of learning and building excellence at an early age in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
All are invited to visit RWC on Saturday, March 7, to watch as these budding scientists compete. Events will run throughout the day, beginning at 8:30 AM and lasting until 2:20 PM; an award ceremony will follow shortly thereafter in the Blue Ash Elementary School, which is located on the RWC campus at 9555 Plainfield Road, Blue Ash. There is no cost to attend and light refreshments will be available.
For more information about the regional tournament, please visit www.rwc.uc.edu/sci-olympiad/ or contact Steve Schrantz, tournament coordinator, at 513-777-0781. Volunteers are also needed to help time events and a variety of other “day of” activities; please contact Heather Nixon at 513-933-9343 if you’d like to help.