All season, the
dedicated members of Mason High School's Science Olympiad had been breaking school records.
Their dedication, and commitment to science and each other made people think - could this be it? Last year, the team missed their chance by just one point. Was this the year that Mason would finally take the state championship? Then, their helicopter broke.
"
At a science Olympiad competition, there are 23 different events and a 15 member team. We really had no idea how we were doing on any of the events except that we knew we had bombed the helicopter event. As happens with build events sometimes, the very delicate helicopter cracked in half and we knew that for that one event we would place in 30th place or worse. With as competitive as the state of Ohio is, we thought our dream of nationals was not possible. We would not be able to recover those points. But as the awards ceremony proceeded, it became clear that we were out placing the other teams more than we ever had. In the end, we placed in the top
four
in the state of Ohio in every other event but helicopters and our total point total was only 79 points (31 pts being helicopters).
We came in first place by only
four
points. Only the top two teams in the state go to nationals. We all cried
--
tears of joy and raw emotion
.
I’m quite certain we will replay moments of the awards ceremony for a long time to come
," shared MHS science teacher and Science Olympiad advisor Aimee Hansen.
The
t
eam will now compete at the 34th Annual Science Olympiad National Tournament on May 19 in Fort Collins, CO where MHS is expected to place in the top five in the country
.
Team
captains are seniors Alex Wang and Alyson Lam, and juniors Jenny Hong and Emily Fang
- who along with many other of the team's seniors are missing their high school graduation in order to compete in the pinnacle of achievement for 120 of the country's best Science Olympiad teams
.
The advisors for the club are MHS science teachers Hansen, Brian Thomas and Linette Graham.
State Results include:
First Place
Anatomy and Physiology: Alex Wang and Jenny Hong
Astronomy: Emily Fang and Jeffrey Huang
Disease Detectives: Alex Wang and Jenny Hong
Dynamic Planet: Emily Fang and Kevin Ren
Game on: Nolan Song and Terry Luo
Herpetology: Alisa Zhang and Jack Li
Hovercraft: Allen Yang and Richard Liu
Remote Sensing: Jenny Wan and Alex Wang
Density (trial event): Rachel Zhan and Sruthi Parthasarathi
Second Place
Chem Lab: Allen Yang and Jeffrey Huang
Ecology: Jenny Hong and Jack Li
Optics: Allen Yang and Emily Fang
Thermodynamics: Allen Yang and Jenny Wan
Towers: Terry Luo and Nolan Song
Third Place
Experimental Design: Alyson Lam, Ranjani Ramasubramanian, Richard Liu
Fermi Question: Daniel Xu and Richard Liu
Forensics: Daniel Xu and Jeffrey Huang
Fourth Place
Material Science: Jeffrey Huang and Terry Luo
Mission Possible: Daniel Xu and Alyson Lam
Mousetrap Vehicle: Alex Wang and Alyson Lam
Rocks and Minerals: Jack Li and Jenny Wan
Write it-Do it: Ranjani Ramasubramanian and Emily Fang