Stevenson High School’s Science Olympiad team spent hours designing and testing the vehicles they built for the Science Olympiad at Macomb Community College’s South Campus in Warren and they all worked.
“We placed in almost every event on top except for one,” said Sheetal Malhotra, head coach of the Stevenson Science Olympiad team, which placed first overall in the high school division at the regional tournament.
“They were just amazing,” Malhotra said of her team.
Also taking first place among the middle schools competing was Malow Junior High School.
“It brings me great pleasure to congratulate our ingenious Science Olympiad students and their incredible leader, Coach Bastounis on their second first place regional finish in two years,” said Kim Hodsdon, principal of Malow Junior High School, a Utica Community Schools building in Shelby Township. “Their positive attitude, teamwork and ability to execute practical scientific applications is inspirational to us all. The entire Malow community is so proud of all their hard work and dedication.”
Stevenson competed against nine high schools and Malow took on 19 middle schools from Macomb and St. Clair counties. Those that placed in the top four at the regionals will head to the state finals at Western Michigan University May 7 to compete against the best of the best, hoping to advance to the nationals.
“I don’t think we’ve ever won the state competition,” Malhotra said, although this is a different team and after their showing at the regionals anything is possible.
The Science Olympiad is structured like a track meet comprising 23 study and build events covering everything from physical science and chemistry to flight and 20 other topics in between. Students typically compete as a pair to demonstrate advanced knowledge and skills in their assigned events. Success requires teams to begin preparing months in advance of invitationals, regional and state competitions. Over the course of a season students and their coaches contribute more than 80 hours of their time to perfecting their designs and final demonstrations. Annual changes in the events themselves such as build specifications and the topic areas keep the competitions challenging and the students motivated to expand their learning.
“All of the hard work and long hours that these kids put in and for them to finish like this, it’s just amazing,” Malhotra said.
Other area high schools that qualified to attend the state tournament include Eisenhower, Chippewa Valley and Dakota high schools. Other middle schools moving on along with Malow Junior High include Marysville Middle School, L’Anse Creuse Middle School South and Algonquin Middle School.
Among the teams Stevenson will have to beat at the state competition is Eisenhower — which reigned supreme for four years in a row before losing to the Titans this year.
“I am elated that the team was able to accomplish their longstanding goal to win the first-place title at regionals this year. While I know competition is tough at the state tournament, I have confidence that the students’ continued hard work and commitment to excellence will equip the team to do well,” said Malhotra.
