- November 26, 2024
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Twenty-three schools from across the state, including five Flagler County Schools competed in the North Eastern Regional Science Olympiad Saturday, Feb. 2, held at Matanzas High School.
The goal of Science Olympiad is to improve the quality of science education through competitions similar to sporting events. Just as students are motivated to compete in various sporting activities, students compete as a team against other schools in 23 different events that range the spectrum of science subjects. Events are inquiry based and have been designed to correlate with the National Science Education Standards and the Sunshine State Standards.
The teams of 15 competed in various tasks that ranged in everything from physics to biology, chemistry and engineering.
“When they walk in, they don’t know what to do until get there, they really need to know material,” said Matanzas teacher Melissa Fox. “It is more like real life, when you go to work you have an idea of what you’re going to do, but really don’t know until you get there. That’s what it is set up to be.”
Matanzas was able to sponsor the event thanks to a $2,000 grant from the Consortium of Education Foundation’s state-wide partnership with AT&T Foundation.
Local schools to participate in the Olympiad were Rymfire Elementary, Matanzas High School, Wadsworth Elementary, Buddy Taylor Middle School and Bunnell Elementary.
Rymfire Elementary sixth-grader Christina Lagas was one Flagler County student who competed. One of her projects was to construct rotor egg drop. Her team completed this task by crafting three pin wheels, each one larger than the next. The pin wheels, made of plastic folders, were separated by straws and string with a pouch for the egg at the bottom.
“It’s really an engineering and aerodynamic feet,” said Janie Ruddy, sixth grade math and science teacher at Rymfire.
When asked how this project can be related to the real world, Lagas replied that it might be possible to use pinwheels to trap renewable resources.
“Or if you’re stuck in a tower and you have to send something done but you don’t want it to break,” she said.
Although none of the Flagler County schools places in the top three, Bunnell Elementary and Buddy Taylor Middle schools both medaled in individual events.
Ruddy hopes to be able to expand on the program at Rymfire next year by making the projects part of her regular curriculum.
“These kids can pick things up out of the book really fast,” she said of the students in her academic enrichment class. “But they need an extension of the learning. All kids benefit from hands on, but this is a little bit harder when you aren’t given the directions and the kids have to be inventive. That’s what these kids thrive on.”
