On Saturday, February 10, the Revere Science Olympiad Team placed 11 in a 33 team field at Sylvania Southview High School.

Senior and  first year member Abby Ray, who competes in Thermodynamics, Towers, Write it Do it, and Optics, gave more information about Science Olympiad and explained what it is.

“Different pairs (in some cases three people) compete in different events. Most of the events involve taking a test, while some have a test and/or an activity. Towers, for example, does not have a test. Instead you place the tower you built on a platform and attach a bucket to the tower. You then add sand to the bucket until your tower breaks or until you’ve added all 15,000g. On the other hand, events like Herpetology and Disease Detectives only have a test,” Ray said.

Ray talked about her favorite event in Science Olympiad, Towers.

“It’s exciting to see how much weight your tower holds after you have worked for so long constructing it,” Ray said.

Revere High School physics teacher & Science Olympiad Coach Jeffrey Shane mentioned a few individuals on the team who have continually placed in a similar spot in each competition and other members of Science Olympiad who are improving at a fast pace.

“Here are a few who have consistently done well: Ben Tipton, Jason Fan, Goodman Li, Tiger Du, and Michael Tomechko. Some others who are ‘coming on’ and quickly improving are Jillian Dicrease, Kyle Shin, Gavin Lewis, and Keri Tomechko,” Shane said.

Senior Ben Tipton, who has been competing for six years and has placed around 15th out of 40 teams this year ,listed his events and also mentioned his favorite part about Science Olympiad.

“I build devices for competitions, such as vehicles powered by mouse traps, Rube Goldberg contraptions, helicopters, and hovercraft. . . . My favorite part about Science Olympiad is the sense of victory after putting in hours of work,” Tipton said.

Sophomore and two year competitor Mary Rickel talked about the events in which she participates.

“I do Astronomy, Rocks and Minerals, and Mission Possible,” Rickel said.

Rickel also mentioned that anyone can join and talked about why people should join.

“Science Olympiad is a lot of fun and a good chance to practice your science knowledge. There’s contests [or] exams for basically any type of STEM field,” Rickel said.

Senior and 4 year member Goodman Li talked about how the team is doing this year.

“This year has been pretty good–top scores all around,” Li said.

Students with a top 10 finish were Karl Godard–10th in Astronomy, Cyrus Nostrati–10th in Fermi Questions, Gavin Lewis–8th in Helicopter, Elizabeth Blackford–8th in Thermodynamics, Alexa Shin–6th in Anatomy & Physiology, and Abby Stumbaugh–6th in Experimental Design.

Students with two top 10 finishes were Kyle Shin–9th in Optics & 6th in Anatomy & Physiologyand Keri Tomechko–9th in Microbe Mission & 6th in Experimental Design.

Students with three top 10 finishes were Jillian Dicrease–10th in Fermi Questions, 5th in Ecology, & 4th in Disease Detective, Jason Fan–10th in Anatomy & Physiology, 9th in Ecology, & 8th in Thermodynamics, Goodman Li–10th in Anatomy & Physiology, 9th in Ecology, & 9th in Optics, Tiger Du–10th in Astronomy, 5th in Ecology, & 3rd in Thermodynamics and Michael Tomechko–9th in Microbe Mission, 6th in Experimental Design, & 3rd in Thermodynamics

The team placed second at their competition on March 11 at The University of Akron and qualified for states. The state competition will take place on April 9.