Olivia Byrnes

Editor of Production

Ready, set, build! Science Olympiad has completed another successful year, placing second in regionals and ninth at states. This year they were even recognized by Bridge Street, a show on News Channel 9, to show off their impressive skills. Check out the segment here.

Science Olympiad combines science and engineering and challenges students against each other in each event, but the preperation begins many months before the first competition. Students first pick a category that they want to compete in. There are two types of categories, there are “builders” and then there is a “studies” category. Builders include people that create robotic arms and build bridges, while the studies category includes a series of written tests on different types of sciences. Students in the “studies” portion study a scientific topic like rocks and then at the meet, take a test where they are asked to identify types of rocks.

To get ready for competition, members meet weekly after school and work together to enhance their skills for the next meet. However, some students put in more time than just the after school meetings,” said adviser and science teacher Michael Keenan. Adviser and tech teacher Larry Stroh advises his students on building and studies. “My job as an adviser is just to manage and watch over, the students really do all the work,” said Mr. Stroh.

Seniors Dan McGann, Cayla Dedrick, and Luke Tarnow showed off their robotic arm that they began building in the beginning of their season, on live television on March 10. News Channel 9 invited them to showcase their accomplishment before the state meet on March 12 at Le Moyne College. “It was fun and I was glad that I was able to go,” said McGann. Tarnow agreed saying that he was excited to get the opportunity to be on TV. “We are very proud; it was awesome,” said Mr. Keenan of the seniors.

McGann had began in the fall, but after many trial and errors he had finally perfected the range of motion for the arm with the help of Dedrick and Tarnow. They had finished it in February before operating it at the state meet in March, said Mr. Stroh. It was a lot of hard work, but they were glad that they were able to use it at states.

Overall the team this year surpassed any expectations that they had for the season. Mr. Keenan was impressed with the team this year, but knows that next year they can do even better. President Rebecca Shen was really happy that they had done so well this year and senior Jackson Kaplan agreed saying “all the hard work paid off.”