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| The Robotic Arm event at Science Olympiad. |
On the night of March 9th, a group of eighteen students and three teachers left John Jay earlier than planned for Syracuse in a successful maneuver to escape the onslaught of snow. They were headed for the New York State competition of Science Olympiad for which they had previously qualified by placing in the top four teams at the Regionals competition. At the competition, they battled other teams from all around New York in their knowledge in scientific topics ranging from biology to physics. Beyond the knowledge events, the team also competed in engineering events with builds that they had painstakingly designed and built in the previous weeks and months. These included events such as Robot Arm, Electric Vehicle, Hovercraft, and Towers. A final adversary would prove to be the weather as the students often had to sacrifice the comfort of their limbs to the freezing cold and snow as they traveled back and forth from building to building.
Although many of the build events faced some hurdles throughout the progress of the competition, the team rallied impressively in the face of the challenges, and the damage was minimized. Notably, the helicopter snapped in half as it was flying. However, the members of the team assigned to that event had come well-prepared and had an extra helicopter body on hand to replace the broken one. The electric vehicle too experienced a sudden malfunction upon arrival, and one of the team members had to completely rewrite the code on the spot. Many other members of the team also helped out with fixing it even though they were not on the event and even though many of them did not have engineering experience. Members in knowledge events could also be found making last minute edits to their note sheets and putting in some final cram time. Later on in the day, once most of the events had finished, several members of the team dedicated their time to making new signage for the team to carry during the parade of teams; the team had forgotten their original banner at home, but the new signs made from Goldfish and Swedish Fish turned out to be just as good, if not better. Overall, the effort of the whole team paid off, and they placed 26th in the state out of 403 teams in total. Individuals who received medals were Karthik L. and Amy Z. in Anatomy and Physiology (1st Place) and Karthik L. and Hannah K. in Microbe Mission (8th Place). The whole team is very grateful to their advisors Mr. Herman, Mrs. Loh, and Mr. Freedman, all of whom put large amounts of time and effort into the club and without whom none of this would have been possible. They also have great gratitude for the district, which paid for almost all of the team’s travel, living, and eating expenses, allowing the team to purchase better materials for the build events and other vital resources.
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| Students from Science Olympiad pose with do-it-yourself signs. |
By Amy Z.