Fleetwood won first place with Exeter winning second at the Berks County Science Olympiad on Jan. 5.
About 300 high schoolers from 16 schools competed in science-based events from robot arm to invasive species at Kutztown University. The invitational competition is open to any high school team but the majority of the teams were from Berks County with five from outside Berks. Boyertown placed 11th, Kutztown placed 12th, Governor Mifflin placed 13th, Schuylkill Valley placed 7th, and Hamburg placed 14th.
“I hope the students continue to learn that science is fantastic, that science is exciting. Science is a career that they should really consider to go into and love and use that career to make the world a better place,” said Berks County Science Olympiad site coordinator Lowell Keebler. “We want kids to be interested in science. We want them to have a love for that and turn it into a career.”
Teams competed for awards at the Berks County Science Olympiad, preparing for the Regional Science Olympiad held at KU on March 19. No teams were eliminated in the Berks County competition.
“It’s to get kids interested in science,” said Keebler, Exeter Township Senior High Earth Sciences teacher. “It’s a dry run for the regional.”
An anticipated 675 students from 41 schools will compete in the regional competition with hopes of qualifying to compete at the state competition.
“Some of the events are things they’re just interested in,” said Keebler. “I know a few kids who are really interested in rocks and minerals so they actually love going to take an event on rocks and minerals, identifying them.”
Science topics included physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and inquiry based. Events included anatomy, rocks and minerals, optics, materials science, wind power, microbe mission, ecology, and invasive species.
Schuylkill Valley junior Lucas Horrell enjoyed the opportunity to learn something he typically doesn’t get to learn about in school. This year he liked the material science event.
“We never had an optics class in our high school. We get to use the physics and chemistry that we learned to do something that’s taught more in college,” said Horrell. “Trying out new things, using new equipment, I think that’s pretty cool.”
What Horrell likes about science are the various subjects that “all discover what we don’t know about the universe and apply it to make something, advance technology and out of all subjects in school it’s probably the one that’s the most challenging. There’s still stuff to be discovered. We’ve only scratched the surface of what we can discover.”
Keeble said there are engineering events where the students have to build something.
“They have to be able to operate those things on the spot not knowing some of the parameters for the day. When they come in they don’t know how far their vehicle has to run,” said Keebler. “They have to be able to think and modify and work on their feet in a certain amount of time. There’s pressure involved just like in the real world.”
Engineering events included the robot arm, electric car, hovercraft and helicopter which required building their own devices as a team and then operating them at the competition.
Exeter Township senior Amanda Zappacosta, 18, operated her team’s robot arm that featured two pivot points and four motors, the building of which was a team effort.
“I think it’s really fun. I like the fact that you can compete in a scientific format,” said Zappacosta. “I think it’s fun because I love science and science is all around us. There’s all different things for people of all different backgrounds to do, like robot arm, astronomy, all kinds of things.”
Zappacosta would recommend other students get involved in Science Olympiad.
“It’s definitely something that more people should get into because it allows people to explore all different kinds of scientific backgrounds that they may want to make a career out of,” she said.
Fleetwood High School sophomores Nick Miller, Owen Breisch and Lucas Strange tested rubber band strength.
“It’s a good learning experience, life lessons,” said Breisch about Science Olympiad.
“Make friends. Discover new things,” added Miller.
Hamburg High School juniors Kylie Clark and Colton Nester enjoyed the biology events most.
“It’s fun competition,” said Nester. “I like knowing where things come from and that’s why I like science. I like more the biology field so I like to know why life is life and where it all comes from.”
Clark said she enjoyed meeting new people and spending time with friends also.
Exeter Township junior Sophia Scorboria, 17, also likes science and spending time with friends.
“I really like it,” said Scorboria. “It was really fun because I get to do it with my friends.”
Boyertown High School seniors Hannah Kemperman, Christina Strobel, Abigail Keebler and Jacob McCann enjoyed spending a day focused on science with friends.
“I have a passion for science, I just really like it,” said Kemperman.
“You get to see the scientific process at work,” said McCann.
“I like how I get to learn things that we don’t cover in school like astronomy,” said Keebler.
“The tests are fun, so is winning,” said Strobel.
“You have a motivation to do well, to win awards,” said Keebler. “You get to spend time with friends so that’s good. We all get to learn about it together and it just makes the complicated topics seem a little easier to grasp because it’s people our age.”
Fleetwood High School sophomores Kaili Gore, Juliana Sanchez and Shelby Claytor like the challenge of Science Olympiad.
“I really like science as a subject and I thought (Science Olympiad) was a good challenge and be able to apply something you like to competition,” said Claytor.
“Just being able to learn and apply it to something,” said Sanchez. “It’s also really challenging and it’s really interesting to learn about.”
What Gore likes about science are the endless possibilities.
“Anything is possible,” said Gore.
Kutztown High School Science Olympiad coaches Dave Drummer, a retired physics teacher, and Ryan Thomas, physical sciences teacher, brought 10 Kutztown students to the Berks competition, which they hope will prepare students for the regional competition.
“It’s great enrichment. It allows these kids to do stuff that they wouldn’t get in the classroom,” said Thomas. “And it’s things they’re really interested in and want to go above and beyond. It allows them to get into the building and do events where they’re building a hovercraft, an electric vehicle, helicopters. It just gives them an opportunity to do something they never would inside of the classroom.”
Results from the Berks County Science Olympiad were pending verification and were not yet available.
The Berks County Science Olympiad was established by Exeter teacher, the late Joann Burak about 20 years ago, of which the majority of that time the event has been held at KU when the university is not in session.
According to the event release from Kutztown University, Science Olympiad is an international nonprofit organization. In its 33rd year, Olympiad competitions are conducted at local, regional, state, and national levels. High school teachers serve as coaches, judges, and coordinators. The local competition is designed to prepare students for regional competition. No teams are eliminated in the local competition.
For more information about the International Science Olympiad, visit www.soinc.org.
