The Paly Science Olympiad Team is continuing its winning streak from last weekend’s Science Bowl, placing first in the regional competition this weekend at Foothill High School.
“This is the first year since I’ve joined SciOly that we’ve won first at Regionals, so it’s really exciting for me,” senior co-captain Erika Ji said. “We have a really great team, and I’m proud that we did so well. Our goal for this year has been to work hard, excel, and have fun. I think our success at Regionals will motivate us to keep working harder and do our best.”
According to junior co-captain Albert Lin, Paly won first place at Regionals in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, making the victory last weekend the sixth victory for Paly.
“Paly won second place at Regionals behind Mission San Jose in 2007, 2008 and 2009,” Lin said. “This year, however, MSJ [Mission San Jose] came in third behind Lynbrook and us.”
According to Ji, the competition covered 23 topics, which were divided into five categories: biology, chemistry/physics, earth/space, inquiry, and engineering.
“The topics range from your typical cell biology or physics lab test to the history and science of timekeeping or understanding the origin of different types of fossils to building a catapult or Rube Goldberg machine,” Ji said.
The Science Olympiad team had two teams of up to 15 people each. Two people were assigned to each topic where they would study, practice, or build together. On the day of the competition, the teams divided up into different rooms to take the tests, perform the labs, design the experiments, or display the engineering devices, and at the end of the day, the top pairs were awarded medals.
The top three teams at the regional competition advance to the state competition and from there, only the winning team advances to the national competition.
“I feel relieved that we did well, but winning also means that we have to get to work for States,” Lin said.
The upcoming State competition will be on Saturday, April 17 at Clovis High School in Fresno, Calif.
Editor’s Note: Reporter Ruhi Sikri contributed some reporting to this story