Science Olympiad team posing at the regionals competition.

Science Olympiad on Their Way to State

Mar 22, 2023

The Niles West Science Olympiad team is headed to state next month after winning fifth place at regionals on Saturday, Mar. 11.

Science Olympiad is a team competition where students do a combination of studying for tests and competing in various events on all subjects of science. Competitions consist of written and building events, ranging from constructing a bridge to building airplanes powered by rubber bands. It’s an engaging club for students who want to get involved in coding, engineering, forestry or any area of STEM they’re interested in. At the events, each group is responsible for working together and being experts in their chosen topic.

Tryouts begin at the beginning of the year, and the members meet after-school on Tuesdays or Thursdays based on the event they’re involved in.

Although the team faced a lot of challenges at invitations at the start of the season, the strong competition they faced there combined with the students’ love of science and engineering motivated them to succeed. All of the coaches are so proud of all the hard work they’ve put in and are thrilled that it has paid off for them.

This year, the students were invited to participate in three different invitational competitions and received valuable feedback from the judges. This feedback helped them learn and develop their skills further. Niles West science teacher and Science Olympiad sponsor Emily Reeves says she’s seen a lot more engagement and growth during this season.

“This is the first season bouncing back from the pandemic since all of the competitions have been in person. I’ve seen really consistent turnout and the social aspect of the in-person competitions have resulted in more engagement among the students,” Reeves said.

At the most recent regional competition, both varsity and junior varsity (JV) members were awarded individual medals rangings from first to sixth place.

“Our varsity team medaled in 19 of the 23 events that they competed in, with notable awards being first place medals for our Write-it Do-it Team (Ayesha Patel and Asma Patel), second place medals for our Bridge Team (Andrew Stefan and Muhammed Ammar) and third place medals for our Codebusters team (Ronit Rahman, Ayesha Patel and Asma Patel),” sponsor Julia Komrska wrote.

Members Ayesha and Asma Patel have consistently earned medals this entire season and beat some of the top teams in the state.

“Each competition, the team as a whole has been getting so much better. We’re all figuring out exactly how our events work, and the more practice we get, the better we’ve been doing. Personally, I’m really proud of my sister and I because we started from not placing at all in one of our events, to placing first at the regional competition!” Ayesha Patel said.

“The season started off being more difficult. At our first invitational, we competed against some of the best teams in the state. As we progressed through the season, we learned from what went well and what didn’t. It was exciting to see everyone’s zeal after every competition and the team’s desire to keep improving and competing. I’m most proud of the community we formed. At regionals, we were able to earn a medal in nearly every event, a testament to the work everyone put in. I am very excited to see how we do at state,” senior Zahra Nathani said.

The Science Olympiad state competition will be held on April 22 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Good luck, Wolves!