Competing in the Trajectory event at the regional tournament for the Eisenhower Science Olympiad team are Mason Kirsch, left and Gino Guadagnino. PHOTO COURTESY OF UCS
Eisenhower beat the challengers to remain regional champions.
For the fourth year in a row the Eisenhower Science Olympiad team placed first overall at the regional tournament March 18 at the University of Michigan and now heads to the state finals.
“I am thrilled that we have successfully defended the first place title here in our own region, and I am looking forward to the students proving themselves again among the stiff competition at the state tournament,” said Susan Ogden, head coach of the Eisenhower High School’s Science Olympiad team.
The regional competition had the team competing against high schools from Macomb and St. Clair counties.
Science Olympiad is structured like a track meet, where each team member competes in several events, but not everything. The competition topics range from anatomy to flight and about 20 other topics in between.
Most often students are assigned to events in pairs, and must demonstrate teamwork to be successful. In all cases the scientific topics and challenges extend to college-level difficulty. The students prepare for months, studying, designing, building, and testing, depending on the specific topic area. Over the course of the season the most dedicated students devote over 100 hours to the team.
The team started strong with the most successful recruitment ever, filling the primary team of 15 students and another 10 students on the alternate team.
In February the squad attended two practice tournaments, one hosted in the Plymouth-Canton school district and another at the University of Michigan. The U-M tournament drew top-level competitors from our state as well as from Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. Even against that fierce competition, Eisenhower won awards in Experimental Design, Fermi Questions and Trajectory.
Placing in the top 3 high school teams in the region has qualified Eisenhower to attend the state tournament on April 22 at Michigan State University.
John Ogden, who serves on the board of the Macomb Science Olympiad, which organizes that annual tournament at MCC, said congratulations are also due to Malow Junior High’s Science Olympiad team after it placed first in the middle school division.
The top winners at the regional tournament who will advance to the April 22 state competition at MSU along with Eisenhower High School and Malow Junior High include Stevenson High School, Dakota High School, Romeo Middle School, Iroquois Middle School, Seneca Middle School and L’Anse Creuse Middle School North.