LIHUE — There were only four teams entered into the Kauai Regional Science Olympiad, but the event that is part of the Hawaii State Science Olympiad accomplished more events Saturday at the Kauai Community College.
“This was a smaller group this year with two middle school, and two high school teams,” said Ryan Girard, Kauai regional director. “We did run 27 different events — 14 middle school, and 13 high school — which is the most Kauai has ever run. It is also more than any of the other regional tournaments. This was possible only because of the incredible support from the community and the Kauai Community College.”
Island School, with Joe Corbo leading the Division B, or middle school, and Dr. John Patterson leading the Division C, or high school, crews swept the day, taking top honors over St. Catherine School in Division B, and edged out Kauai High School in Division C.
“We did good in Write It, Do It,” said the St. Catherine team of Malia Anderson and Emma McCartney. “Malia would look at an object, and after studying it, wrote up directions on how to create it. Then Emma would have to re-create the object using the directions Malia wrote up. “
McCartney, experiencing the Kauai Regional Science Olympiad for the fourth time, said they were OK in the Anatomy segment which was a test on the heart, and had leftover marshmallows from Mystery Architecture where teams had to build a bridge using uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows.
“Once you build the bridge, it’s not over,” McCartney said. “You have to put a cup on it and see how many paper clips the bridge will hold before collapsing. We did pretty good. Ours held four boxes of paper clips, and we have some leftover marshmallows in the package, too.”
In between the events, students could engage with the augmented reality sandbox, and the Ozobots being manned by volunteers from the Kauai Community College Cognitions program.
Kai Mottley of the Kauai High School team was juggling his schedule between the Olympiad and the Kauai Interscholastic Federation qualifying swim meet that was taking place at the same time at the YMCA pool.
“I don’t think I’m doing too good at this,” Mottley said, arriving in time to see the team’s level explode in the Boomilever event where the ratio of weight and the weight of the sand causing the boom to break are factors in determining the winner.
Girard also announced the Kauai Elementary Science Olympiad Tournament by the Hawaii State Science Olympiad, the same group that holds the Kauai Regional Science Olympiad.
The fourth annual Kauai Elementary Science Olympiad Tournament is open to grades 3 through 6 and will be held on April 27 at the Kauai Community College.
Teams need to register in advance. Information: www.hsso.org
