Revere High School’s Science Olympiad team will head to the state tournament after a series of successful runs at invitationals across Ohio.

On April 28 students will compete at Ohio State University in a series of 23 different events focused on STEM fields and topics. The top two teams in the state competition will advance to the national tournament. Revere has already attended multiple invitationals including competitions in Mentor and Solon, among others. This year marks the 31st time in a row Revere has qualified to attend the state tournament. Since seniors cannot attend as a result of Revere High School’s prom, the freshmen, sophomores and juniors will represent the team.

Physics teacher Jeff Shane has coached the Science Olympiad team for 23 years. He explained the structure of the program.

“[Science Olympiad] is a STEM competition where students compete in 23 different events as a team. . . Students compete in anywhere from 2 to 4 of them during the course of a day with a partner. . . and they see how well they do against other schools. It’s like a big track meet,” Shane said.

Students can choose an event depending on their personal interests and passions. Events cover topics such as forensics, ecology, optics, astronomy, biology and physics. Out of all the events, junior Macy Keaton described forensics as her favorite event.

“Normally they give you a fake crime scene. . . you have to identify different powders and other samples of cloth and figure out what’s going on,” Keaton said.

Students within the team divide the events among themselves. Since a maximum of 15 students can join a team, Revere has two separate teams that compete throughout the season. The events available to the teams change each year according to Shane.

“[The 23 events] rotate. Every year a third of them change, a third of them are modified, and a third of them don’t change. So this year 16 of these events will come over to next year, and then 7 or so will be all new. Then half of the events that stay will have rule changes,” Shane said.

Students participate in the program out of their shared love of science and passion for advancing fields. Junior Meha Elango cited the team culture as her favorite aspect of the program.

“I like participating in all the events and we have a really nice coach. I just like going as a team,” Elango said.

Similarly, Junior Mary Rickel referred to the community as one of the best parts of the program.

“It’s a lot of fun and you get to hang out with a lot of nerds, which is great,” Rickel said.

The team will participate in the state tournament on April 28 at Ohio State University.