Glasgow’s very own Science Olympiad team is heading to the state Science Olympiad competition which is being held on  March 26! These students have been working since October to prepare for regionals that took place on January 22 and February 12. The Glasgow Science Olympiad team placed in many of the Regionals events, and were overjoyed to find out that they made it to the state competition! The Glasgow team participated in all 22 Regionals events. Topics ranged from ‘Disease Detectives’ (medical information and scenarios) to ‘Mousetrap Vehicle’ (creating a moving vehicle out of mousetraps).

Diana Prudius, an 8th grader on the Glasgow Science Olympiad team participated in multiple events including a study event called Green Generation. “For study events, it was much easier to work with a partner, because you had somebody to back you up,” she said. Science Olympiad members had to take initiative by doing their own research and preparation, they spent countless hours outside of school working to be well prepared for Regionals. 

(top left: Ayesha Gulzar and Gavin Tilock studying for Disease Detectives. top right: Diana and Laura Prudius competing for Bridges at Regionals. bottom left: Science Olympiad team testing for study events on Regionals day. bottom right: Yonathan Abeje and Aaron Naidan testing Ping Pong Parachute.)

Along with study events, many members did build events such as building a catapult and a parachute. Amanuel Gebremeskel, an 8th grader at Glasgow, along with Yonathan Abeje an 8th grader shared their experiences with build events. “There were a lot of restrictions for the device that I was building. This pushed me to research more about my device so that I could make it as effective as possible,” said Amanuel. Yonathan explained that, “The main challenge for both of my events was knowing how to start. When compared to study events, build events require a different approach. After knowing how to start, everything gets easier from there.” 

The Glasgow Science Olympiad team’s success wouldn’t have been possible without their coaches, Teresa and Tucker Trissell. Tucker, a 9th grader at Justice HS, started the Glasgow team because, “I just felt that Science Olympiad was a really positive experience in my life for the four years that I have done it, and I wanted to let everyone else experience it the same way I did.” Upon reflecting on Science Olympiad as a whole, Teresa Trissell felt that, “It’s been awesome! You guys are smart, inquisitive, polite, engaged, and I love sharing science, and geeky math things with you all.” 

Overall, this group of smart, and talented students created a community of scientists. Throughout the past few months, they’ve grown close and become a very tight knit group of friends. They can inspire others (and hopefully future Glasgow students) to join the Science Olympiad team, and make this community of science lovers grow.