On April 20th, 2024, the South Windsor High School’s Science Olympiad Team won the State Tournament at UCONN.
The team had attended three invitationals prior to the state tournament. The three invitationals they had attended were the Cornell Invitational earlier this year, the Columbia High School Regional, and Yale Invitational.
“It was amazing to be able to win again and celebrate with everyone,” a senior on the A team in Science Olympiad, Grace Smith said.
Smith was ecstatic to be able to flourish in this competition at one of her events, Scrambler. In that event, students must create, assemble, and test a mechanical device that transports an egg as fast as possible along a straight track and stops as close to the center of a terminal barrier as possible without shattering the egg. The device harnesses the energy of a falling mass. In the past, Smith and the students have had trouble with this event, so it’s a great victory after much studious work.
The majority of the team participated in two invitationals before going onto the state tournament. They had three teams for the States this year due to the tremendous amount of interest in the team following back-to-back (now three consecutive) state titles, and they were able to send a wide range of individuals to invitationals to get competition experience.
“You have fun learning more,” the teacher advisor for Science Olympiad, Mr. Joshua Kraus, said.
Science Olympiad isn’t just a competition; it’s like a platform for students who want to push boundaries and their academics. Kraus believes that students should go on the team for the Science Olympiad so they have the opportunity to know more. He knows it may be a burden to study different types of science, but it’s amazing to be able to have that type of knowledge in your back pocket.
As the team looks forward to new challenges, this win can be looked at as a reminder of the rewards that come from hard work.
