Aliso’s Science Olympiad competed at the regional competitions at UCI on Feb. 14. The two teams of 15 students participated in a variety of science events.
This year, Aliso’s teams performed well, placing 25 and 29 out of 47 teams. Additionally, participants Alex Dagher (12) and Arna Rajpal (10) got the school eighth place in the circuit lab event. Other notable results included placing 12 in the hovercraft event, where students designed and built a craft that was able to float and travel a certain distance.
Events included these engineering-based events, where teams built structures such as bridges beforehand and tested their sturdiness at the competition, as well as lab-based events focusing on topics like chemistry and forensics. Also, teams were tested in knowledge events, for which they had to make study guides for subjects including anatomy, physiology, environmental science and astronomy, among others.
Ms. Zhou, the club advisor, says, “They did extraordinarily well, especially considering we were going up with teams that had much more resources than we did.”
Aliso’s Science Olympiad President Kseniia Antipina (12) says, “We had, like, about 10 to 15 events above 20, so that was pretty good.”
Science Olympiad is a national STEM competition for middle and high school students, featuring 23 hands-on events. While other schools may have specific classes dedicated to the competition, Aliso’s Science Olympiad is a club, with highly dedicated students largely self-studying, making their performance in February all the more impressive.
Ms. Zhou says, “We started off meeting Wednesdays and Thursdays only, and then once the competition was getting closer, we also added Tuesdays to that, and then the couple weeks before the competition we were meeting every single weekday after school.”
Because it is a primarily student-driven organization, Antipina, as president, is responsible for organizing the Olympiad and ensuring that participants are prepared for the competition.
Ms. Zhou says, “She does all of the logistics — any meetings that we have, she makes the presentation, she contacts everybody. She [was] basically the one who’s making sure that everybody knew what they needed to bring that day [of the competition].”
The club also provides a nice place for students to more deeply engage with scientific concepts in a fun, competitive environment.
“We want everyone to get involved,” Antipina notes. “You can do it on your own time, and it’s really fun, so we encourage everyone to join.”
