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We're proud of our Science Olympiad team! Mr. Shinn led them to a decisive
first place victory. |
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Topeka Collegiate’s Science Olympiad team has
won the regional Science Olympiad competition for the third year in a
row. They took this year’s top honors January 11 in Salina. Coach
Loren Shinn says this win was
particularly gratifying because every student on the 15-member team won
at least one individual medal in addition to the first place team medal.
That makes for a lot of what eighth grader
Cameron Seals Schwanke calls “science bling.” All that bling
makes a lot of noise, so there was a good deal of clanging as the team
assembled for a victory photo. In Science Olympiad, the low score wins.
TCS’s team score was 81, down from 96 last year. The second place team
scored 97, the third place team 132. (See individual results below)
Science Olympiad is a series of hands-on science challenges that involve
engineering, analytical and critical thinking skills as well as lab
proficiency.
In the “Sounds of Music” event, for example, students craft their own
musical instruments. At the contest, they play two songs, then explain
to the judges how their instruments work and why they sound the way they
do. “Can’t Judge a Powder” involves identifying a mystery powder by
performing a series of tests on it. Coach Shinn says this year’s contest
was challenging because the event schedule forced him to do a lot of
shifting of partners. As a result, many students weren’t working with
the person they thought they would and eighth graders were sometimes
paired with sixth graders. Mr. Shinn says that may turn out to be a good
thing because there will be a continuity of knowledge and experience for
future teams.
A high point for Mr. Shinn was seeing a group of Topeka Collegiate
alums, now representing Topeka High School, do so well.
Pete Ebeling ‘04 started a
Science Olympiad club at High this year, and in their first year of high
school competition, Pete, Robert Hamilton ’05
and Rebecca Rosacker ‘04 all
medaled.
The Science Olympiad team now has its sights set on state competition,
scheduled for April 1 at Wichita State University. The team has already
met to talk about how to improve. “I told them to be prepared to step it
up a few notches,” said Mr. Shinn. Congratulations, team and good luck
at state!
Haden Beardmore
3rd Place – Dynamic Planet
2nd Place – Mystery Architecture
Quentin Chediak
1st Place – Food Science
David Gast
2nd Place – Can’t Judge a Powder
2nd Place – Don’t Bug Me
Anna Hamilton
2nd Place – Awesome Aquifer
1st Place – Sounds of Music
Blake Hamilton
1st Place – Bottle Rocket
1st Place – Meteorology
3rd Place – Road Scholar
Sjobor Hammer
1st Place – Rocks and Minerals
1st Place – Solar System
1st Place – Water Quality
Daniel Mandel
2nd Place – Awesome Aquifer
3rd Place – Dynamic Planet
Cameron Seals Schwanke
1st Place – Meteorology
1st Place – Solar System
1st Place – Water Quality
Joseph Barber
2nd Place – Balloon Race
3rd Place – Road Scholar
Daniel Kennedy
2nd Place – Disease Detective
2nd Place – Mystery Architecture
Nick Massey
2nd Place – Balloon Race
2nd Place – Disease Detective
David Wang
2nd Place – Can’t Judge a Powder
1st Place – Food Science
Patrick Elisha
1st Place – Sounds of Music
Nick Palmer
1st Place – Bottle Rocket
2nd Place – Don’t Bug Me
Reston Phillips
1st Place – Rocks and Minerals
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