The Science Olympiad is one of the many clubs that Francis Lewis High School has to offer. It participates in annual science competitions which challenge its competitors to excel in their selected field of science. Anyone can join the Science Olympiad, but not everyone is eligible to participate in competitions. The Science Olympiad selects qualified members by testing students using diagnostics. Then throughout the year, participants are prepared for upcoming competitions through study sessions held in club meetings.
There are three types of competitions: invitational, regionals and state. Invitationals are competitions, hosted at universities or colleges, that Science Olympiads apply to participate in. On Saturday January 27th 2024, the FLHS Science Olympiad attended an invitational at Columbia University. The following Saturday was their regional competition. Ms. Faiza Arshad, advisor of the Science Olympiad, indicated that the invitational helped students identify the things that they need to work on before the approaching regional competition.
“So some of the events did go very well, some of the events did not go very well. But I think it kind of gives students a little bit of a heads up on what’s coming the following week,” Said Ms.Arshad. “So I think it allows them that one week to kind of focus on what are some of the topics they kind of need to go over again.”
Regionals are local competitions that take place at highschools. All Science Olympiads located in the same region compete against one another in this competition. If a Science Olympiad makes it to top 7 in a regional, they are eligible to enter a state competition. On February 3rd 2024, participants stepped up their game for the Saturday regional. Winning 7th place, they made it to their first ever state level competition.
“But for regionals, such a big turn around, after CUSO we were all like ‘oh my gosh, we need to lock in, we need to study,’” said Maya Escobar, a member of the Science Olympiad. “So that week, from CUSO to the regionals, I think the entire team switched their mindset and were like ‘we’re just going to do better on this one, were going to study hard,’ and I guess we did because the results show.”
The Science Olympiad was exhilarated having achieved state level. They received acknowledgement from FLHS and other schools for their triumph.
“We’ve never been said in the announcements before, we’ve never been even noticed by our principal, so a few days ago, hearing that in the announcements, I kid you not, I screamed in my class,” said Escobar. “To get noticed by our school after all the hard work we’ve done over the years is just such a level of accomplishment that we’ve always wanted to achieve and now that we have it, it’s just such a great feeling for us to have.”
Participants expressed that competitions can be rewarding in more ways than one. They explained that they provide competitors with knowledge as they prepare for competitions, and give them a sense of satisfaction when they reach the end.
“It makes me feel happy because it gets me away from learning the typical school stuff and I could learn alot more than what school has taught me,” said Amanda Chen, a member of the Science Olympiad. “These events in Science Olympiad are usually above AP level, like college level, so you learn alot more in depth than what you learn inside of school.”
Competitions have events that are divided based on type of science. Some fields of science involve both a testing portion and an experimental aspect (such as chemistry), while others have just a test (such as anatomy and physiology), or just an experiment. Build for instance, is just an experiment.
“So it ranges, it can be only an exam, exam plus a lab portion, or just building events only,” said Ms. Arshad. “I think the building events- there are some events that require the students to build, so they have to use their knowledge of physics, and physical sciences to actually build like little airplanes, or a little bridge that can hold a lot of weight, and things like that- so I think those are very exciting events.”
Competitions encourages hands-on interaction with Science; members utilize theorems and scientific ideas during testing events as well as during experimental events. Through competitions, students get to explore the expanse of science, as well as build on and experiment with concepts they’ve learned in class.
“Most of the science we learn in high school is very memory based, textbook based, notebooks, notes, exams, and that’s it,” said Ms.Arshad. “But that is just the beginning of science, it gets alot more interesting when it becomes actionable and I think this club is able to do that.”
