On March 24, 2018, Bedford High School arrived at Saint Anselm College to compete in the annual Science Olympiad state competition. In preparation for the competition, students had been meeting consistently on Tuesdays after school with the club advisors: Mrs. Nutting and Mrs. Baney. The team had also gone to several invitational tournaments.
Science Olympiad is a competition that fosters students’ interest in scientific careers by developing their knowledge on different areas of the field while also encouraging teamwork and collaboration in a competitive situation. Sophomore Calvin Ang comments on how he has “met a community of dedicated students who want to learn about science and…everyone in Science Olympiad is a great participant.” The events that students were asked to prepare for in this year’s Science Olympiad included Anatomy and Physiology, Helicopters, Astronomy, Herpetology, Chemistry Lab, Hovercraft, Disease Detectives, Microbe Mission, Dynamic Planet, Mousetrap Vehicle, Ecology, Mission Possible, Experimental Design, Remote Sensing, Fermi Questions, Rocks and Minerals, Forensics, Towers, Game On, Write It Do It, Thermodynamics, and Optics. This wide range of event choices brought many eager students to the Science Olympiad club in Bedford High School. With such a large amount of club members, Bedford had to split into two competition groups: Bedford HS Red and Bedford HS Silver.
The wide variety of opportunities to choose from helped Bedford develop its teams to reach its full capacity. Luke DuPlessis, a sophomore and second year club member, describes how he “chose Astronomy as my primary event because I’ve always thought space was really cool, especially stars and nebulas.” He particularly enjoyed this event because “In Astronomy, there’s two different parts – the math and identification parts – and the combination of the two on the test is really interesting because you have to problem solve as well as be able to identify different celestial objects.” Hannah Thomas, another sophomore and first year club member, speaks about her primary event, stating that “I picked Mission Possible because I felt like it was something that I would be confident going into because you are able to prepare beforehand and you know how it is going to be scored. You can control how well you are going to do. It’s not like you have to be prepared for any and every test question.” While Thomas enjoyed being able to “perform tests beforehand so I was confident in my device’s ability” in a previously prepared event, DuPlessis clearly found interest in the intensity of a test that tested his on-the-spot problem solving and memory skills.
The diversity of events Science Olympiad brings forth for students tested both of Bedford’s teams and encouraged the collaboration of students with different sets of strengths. The hard work that both BHS teams put in resulted in success. Bedford HS Red placed 2nd and Bedford HS Silver placed 4th at the state competition!
