Science Olympiad regional competition

By Lavi Ben-Dor, Staff Reporter

Members of the Conestoga Science Olympiad team attended the regional competition on Feb. 28 at Cabrini College. Thirty-six schools participated in the competition, and the eight best-performing schools were chosen to attend the state tournament, which will be held on April 29 at Juniata College.

Eight Conestoga students placed in their competitions, with at least one ’Stoga student placing in six out of the twenty-three different events. Conestoga placed sixth overall and will attend the state tournament.

“It’s always exciting—the preparation is long, and you never know how [the tournament] will work out,” senior Samantha Webster, the president of Science Olympiad, said. “We’re assigned a new competition every year, so we’re always off and trying new things. It was a lot of work, and we got to get started preparing for states.”

Webster placed third in Forensics and is excited about attending states.

“[My goal is] first or second place. That gets you to go to nationals,” Webster said.

Club sponsor and chemistry teacher Derrick Wood is proud of the team and all that they have accomplished this year. He is looking forward to the state tournament and thinks that the team stands a chance to make nationals.

“I thought [the competition] went well,” Wood said. “We have a pretty young team, but we rose to the challenge. We’ve been preparing since September, and last week we met every day to be ready for the competition. I think we have a chance [of making nationals]. I really do.”

Regardless of the team’s placement in the state competition, Wood hopes that every student benefits from participating in Science Olympiad.

“I hope they have a love and joy for science and engineering. I hope they have fun [as well],” he said.

Lavi Ben-Dor can be reached at lbendor@stoganews.com.