LIHUE — Keegan Ushio of the Wilcox Elementary School team was busy swiping away strands of “thread” Saturday during the third annual Kauai Elementary Science Olympiad hosted by the Kauai Community College.
“This is for structural efficiency,” Ushio said, busy cleaning his pasta tower of wayward strands of glue used to hold everything together. “We need to make it light because that counts against how much weight is needed before the tower breaks.”
The cleaning may, or may not have worked because the three teams who entered towers all withstood the entire contents of the weighted material.
“This was one of the ‘wow’ moments from the tournament,” said Ryan Girard, the Hawaii State Science Olympiad Kauai Regional Director. “None of the pasta towers broke during the testing so a tie-breaker involving the weight of the tower had to be used.”
The second “wow” moment was the longest room at the KCC, the new multi-purpose auditorium, was not long enough to contain the paper airplanes in the Take to the Skies event.
“We need a longer room,” Girard said. “One of the paper airplanes hit the wall. When we took the event outdoors for exhibition trials, that plane flew more than 90 feet.”
The purpose of the science Olympiad is to complement the K through 12 science education for all students in the state, the elementary version taking place Saturday with breakfast and lunch being sponsored by the Family and Friends of Agriculture, and the help of a number of community professionals heading the different competition arenas.
“We broke part of the car just before it was supposed to run,” an excited Island School team explained to Kauai Council Chair Mel Rapozo. “But we were able to fix it and make the car run through the Mousetrap Vehicle track where a mousetrap provides the power for the vehicle.”
The discussion triggered the merits of a braked, or unbraked car with Rapozo as the vehicle is measured for distance and accuracy based on its mousetrap motor.
This year, there were just three teams entered with the Wilcox Team 1 getting first place following the arena of nine competitive events. Wilcox School’s Team 2 finished in second place, also capturing the Spirit Award for exemplifying school spirit, personal pride, good sportsmanship, and personifying the spirit of the Science Olympiad. Island School’s team finished third.
•••
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
