The team consists of three sub-teams, Team Black, Gold, and Charger, with a total of 40 students. The current President is Craig Grant, who has been in Science Olympiad since eighth grade.

 

Grant says, “I am proud of this team given the few resources available for assistance among other obstacles the team had to face this year.”

 

There are 23 total events, within the categories of life/personal/social science, earth/space science, physical science/chemistry, technology/engineering, and the nature of science. Each team consists of 15 members, where students are partnered up for each event.

 

Hard work and determination shown from the students since tryouts last fall have produced a successful team, placing second in the state overall.

 

The team earned 22 medals overall, from the 69 available with 14 medals for Team Black and eight medals for Team Gold.

 

Shivani Bisen, a successful sophomore medalist at the competition, explains how Science Olympiad is not only the most important thing in her life and also explains her ambitions for the team next year.

 

Bisen is will be the 2014-2015 Vice President and aims to have the team place first next year and attend the National competition in Lincoln, Nebraska.

 

In fact, Bisen regrets not joining before eighth grade at Hyde Park Middle School. Nevertheless, she has received three gold medals, three silver, and two bronze throughout her time in Science Olympiad.

 

The team’s leadership positions are mostly held by seniors and juniors, as Zachary Shattler holds the position of Vice President, Anona Su is Secretary, Ian Macato is Treasurer, Sabrina Wang is Historian, and Kevin Meng is Sergeant-at-Arms.

 

Sabrina Wang, like many of the competitors, was part of Hyde Park’s extremely successful Science Olympiad. Hyde Park recently won their 11th continuous state championship.

 

This year Wang received gold in the Boomilever event, where she and her partner Leanne Chung built a cantilever bridge. She also won silver in her lab chemistry event, Forensics, and in Mission Possible, often jocularly nicknamed Mission Impossible,where competitors build a Rube Goldberg machine.

 

Nevertheless, Wang’s success in Science Olympiad has been more than just a handful of medals. From her experience in Science Olympiad, Wang now knows what specific career she would like to study in college.

 

Next year, the leadership will change as we say goodbye to many of the seniors. Science Olympiad held elections for all returning freshman, sophomore, and junior competitors on March 25th.

 

The team will be led next year by President Kevin Meng, Vice President Shivani Bisen, Secretary Sabrina Ho, Treasurer Neal Bhandari, Historian Rachel Zhang, and Sergeant-at-Arms Leanne Chung.

 

We hope to see the team do just as well, if not better, at State next year.