
SWHS traveled to Yale University for the 12th annual Yale Undergraduate Science Olympiad Invitational with 2 teams.
Science Olympiad is a club that competes in competitions that consist of 23 different science events covering a broad range of STEM topics. The club splits up into two teams of 15 people before they compete.
“What I really like about Science Olympiad is the choices of science they want to explore given to students,” Nithish Jayaraj said. “… it enables us to discover and explore areas of science that traditionally aren’t explored in the classroom.
“I chose entomology because it’s really cool to know about so many little insects and how big of an impact they can have in the world,” Jayaraj added. “Like being gigantic pests that spread disease or contribute billions to our economy by being productive pollinators.”
The next priority for the team is the CT States Tournament which is occuring on March 22nd at UCONN; the team is working to win states for a 4th time in a row and proceed to nationals again which are at University of Nebraska this year.
SWHS A Team placed 4th altogether as a team, winning a total of 11 individual medals while B Team placed 8th overall. In general, it was a great event for the team with 38 students winning 19 individual events
Both South Windsor Teams placed first and second in Wind Power building off their success from their first place win at the CT State tournament when all 3 South Windsor teams placed in the Wind Power event.
In Team A, Senior Jeremy Shiju and Junior Maher Mawla won first place in Ecology while seniors Daniel Stoyanov and Aditya Jha won first place in Wind Power. Second place in Electric Vehicle was won by Senior Aditya Jha and Sophomore Karthik Srikumar.
In Team B, Sophomore Prasun Modi and Freshman Gian Handa won 1st in Astronomy while sophomores Daksh Singh and Prasun Modi won first in Robot Tour. Senior Naren Balachandar and Junior Jim Sujan won first in Wind Power.
Students had a chance to explore Yale University and the New Haven area, visiting shops and libraries at Yale.
Unfortunately not all things at Yale were a success. On the way to the university, the bus broke down which required a replacement.