Silence blankets the gym of Canyon Hills High School as Science Olympiad Captain Senior Cindy Chen releases her plane into a steady, climbing flight. It takes a minute and half before the model touches the ground, signaling a wide round of applause from the audience watching the trials in the building category Wright Stuff.
Science Olympiad brought back six medals from the Southern California State competition on April 4, following a fifth-place victory at the Los Angeles Regional competition back in February. There, they faced off against 29 other high schools, which all placed highly in their separate regional competitions, and earned 15th place—the highest achievements in the team’s history and a step many didn’t think they’d achieve this year, because of the large amount of new members.
“Making state mostly depended on the work ethic of the new members, and we weren’t sure how they would be,” Senior Kristy Hsi said. “They have gone above and beyond all of our expectations and I think I speak for the old members and especially the seniors on the team, that we could not be more proud of how much heart they’ve given to the studying sessions, the team and the competition.”
Chen and Junior Christine Cai medaled fifth in Bungee Drop, a building event where a bottle is dropped from a certain height and must aim to reach as close as possible to the ground. Event organizers give the measurements for mass and height the day of competition and the competitors must then calculate how long their bungee material should be accordingly.
Prior to the competition, Cai and Chen had dropped multiple masses from different heights, even from Chen’s roof, to compile data for their bungee cord. The data collection took the whole Science Olympiad season. At the competition, the duo actually encountered a problem when the organizers provided unclear measurements. After arguing their case, they were allowed to conduct reruns for their bungee.
Seniors Benjamin Gray and Greta Xiong won first in Write It Do It, an event where Xiong had to write a building procedure. Gray then had to build something with the guideline; their score was judged based on how similar the build was to the original mechanism.
Xiong, along with Junior Celena Chen, also placed sixth in Cell Biology, a study event where they take an extensive exam on the subject. Alternates Sophomores Eric Lau and Michelle Tran came in third in Hydrogeology, a trial study event, though the placings did not count towards the final team score.
Compared to other high schools in Division C, TC’s Science Olympiad team is heavily student run—there are no coaches and there is only one supervisor, Physics Teacher Mr. Kevin Slattery. Leading up to the Regional competition, team members met up on Saturday nights to study for their categories and build for their events, if necessary. Those with more complex building events also met up separately, whether for test runs or other reasons.
“We may be at a slight disadvantage in some events, but it only pushes us to work harder and to do as much as possible by ourselves,” Hsi said. “We have proven that you don’t need to rely on coaches or outside help to do well and have great time. ”
Though this year’s Science Olympiad team has finished its run, there’s always next year. The team holds tryouts around October, which involve students picking and taking two tests.
“My involvement in Science Olympiad highlights the best moments in my high school experience,” Cindy Chen said. “In the future, I wish to become one of the Science Olympiad coordinators to give back to the competition.”
TCHS School Newspaper