After an eight-year hiatus, Haven’s Science Olympiad team began to compete again at the State level in 2024. This year the team continued to compete by attending States on Saturday, April 25 at Penn State Altoona.
Science Olympiad is a club at the middle school and high school level that competes in science-related events. These events can involve taking a test on specific science topics, performing a lab, or building a device.
“You demonstrate your understanding [of these topics] in many ways, and the topics are things you probably wouldn’t learn in a normal high school class,” senior and Science Olympiad member Yuhang Li said.
Leading up to States, the team has spent many after school hours congregating in Science Olympiad advisor Mr. Marc DeJong’s room at the middle school to prepare for the competition.
“We’ve been going to practices, working on doing our specific builds, and getting feedback from Mr. DeJong,” Li said. “You either go to practice and just do your thing or you’re at home and you do your thing.”
The team has also attended a variety of different invitationals including the Dick Smith Memorial Invitational, Battle of Valley Forge Invitational, and the Penn Science Olympiad Invitational. These invitationals, some online and others in person, helped the team build and refine their skills throughout the season.
However, as senior and Science Olympiad co-captain Ricky He shares, the State tournament competition can vary from regional invitationals.
“We’ve done this for a while so we pretty much know the competition level at state, and it is high,” He said. “It’s gonna be higher than regionals and most of the other competitions we do.”
The team found their preparation and past experiences to be beneficial at States. And, along with preparation, the team’s morale and collaboration allowed them to not just compete, but also have fun.
“The general environment of our team is pretty positive. We don’t take ourselves too seriously which really makes it a lot more fun to compete,” He said. “It takes the stress out of it as well.”
He finds this to be an optimistic sign for the future of the team, as the performance this year was comparatively better than last year’s, with eight teams placing in the top 10 in the state. The overall team placed 13th.
“It’s gonna hurt because we have six seniors this year who’ll be graduating, but I think the team has shown that they can make great progress next year,” He said.
Whether it be the supportive parents that continue to encourage students or the high schoolers who spend time teaching the middle schoolers foundational skills and motivating them to compete, DeJong senses further progress and growth in Haven Science Olympiad’s future years.
“I mean the team changes every year, with new faces and kids with new specialties,” DeJong said. “But, I would say that it also has stayed very similar with kids who are passionate about science and are really willing to put in independent hours to get good at their events.”
