RHS Sends its First Team to the Science Olympiad Competition

At 6 a.m. on Saturday March 29, a bus left Ridgefield High School and headed to the Science Olympiad State competition at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. It was the first time Ridgefield High School sent a team to the competition. The team was made up of 15 RHS students: Ty Cruz, '15, Alexandra DiGiacomo,'16, Jacob Feldman, '15, Amanda Guarino,'15, Jacob Hawker,'14, Justin Joyce,'16, Ciaran Kager,'15, Hannah Kim,'16, Austin Langer,'15, Siqiao Mu,'16, Natalie Parker,'16, Isabella Spanos,'16, Angela Sun,'16, Hana Thurkauf,'16, and Nancy Zhou '15. Team advisors were Ms. Ziegler and Mr. Holmes.

There were 23 events for the team to compete in and they covered a variety of different science topics. The competition included everything from biology to physics, chemistry, environment science and more. Some events were set up as labs while others were exams or the presentation of machines. "The competition was a real learning experience that taught us the difficulties of the competition," commented Team Captain Jacob Feldman. The competition started at 8:30 a.m. and closed with a medal ceremony at 4:30 p.m..

The team ended up taking home three medals. Siqiao Mu and Natalie Parker won silver in the Write It, Do It event, Jacob Feldman and Justin Joyce also won silver in the Astronomy event, and Austin Langer and Alexandra DiGiacomo won silver in the Water Quality event. While the team as a whole did not qualify to move on to nationals, it was an amazing turnout for our team's first time competing. Mr. Holmes found the competition a valuable experience, "I am very proud of all the students that participated and competed...Ridgefield has never fielded a team before, so for us to go and end up with three medals was outstanding. We learned quite a bit, and I know that we will do even better next year." The knowledge learned from this first experience at States will definitely be very valuable when it comes to preparing for next year.

Ms. Ziegler was equally proud. She added, "... I was most proud to see the positive spirit and strong teamwork the students displayed throughout a very long, very tiring day of competition. The RHS Science Olympiad club members are such a great group of kids; it was truly a pleasure advising them through this process." She also said working with the group was "inspiring" because everyone was very devoted. The whole process was truly great. Everyone put in a tremendous amount of effort and learned new information in a field of science that they are interested in.

The team met on nearly every Monday in G328 since August to prepare. There had also been a few preliminary meetings at the end of the last school year. "The students really held the reins, pacing their preparatory efforts and supporting each before and during the competition" commented Ms. Ziegler. To prepare, the students took tests, built machines and carried out mock lab experiments to mimic the actual competition. Leading the students in this process was Jacob Feldman. "... He should also be recognized for his leadership in starting the team, recruiting members, organizing the training, and competing himself and earning a second place medal," Mr. Holmes pointed out.

There was more to the day than just the competition though. "It was a great deal of fun competing with a great team on a great campus..." said Jacob. Everyone really bonded and enjoyed visiting UCONN, which was in the middle of celebrating the Huskies' big NCAA basketball win. Most of the events took place in either the chemistry, business, or technology building, with home base in Laurel Hall, so the team got to view a nice portion of the campus. Overall, everyone had fun, learned a lot, and is very motivated to take first place next year.