On April 10, New Trier Science Olympiad competed in the Illinois Science Olympiad Virtual State Tournament and won second place out of 59 schools, once again earning the opportunity to compete at the Science Olympiad National Competition hosted by Arizona State University on May 21-22.
New Trier's Varsity team earned first-place medals in three events; second-place medals in four events; third-place medals in four events; one fourth-place medal, and one fifth-place medal.
"I love that each member of the team wants their teammates to succeed," Science Olympiad Co-Head senior Emilia McDougal said. "We see varsity members spending hours helping underclassmen with their studying and explaining concepts to them, for no other reason except that they genuinely want to help them. Similarly, even when JV's season was over, they continued to come to practices and support the varsity team on their road to State."
All competitions over the past year took place through a special online platform called scilympiad.org, which was developed by Science Olympiad Inc. as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and made competing possible for most events-except the hands-on building events that historically made up about twenty-five percent of the competition.
According to Co-Sponsor and Applied Arts Teacher Alex Howe, New Trier Science Olympiad students still competed in several building events this year for the experience alone.
"Frankly I was surprised to see 50 students engaged all year long," Howe said. "In fact, we were the only team in the State to send three full teams [15 kids per team] to Regionals, so I'm thrilled we had so much participation."
He credits senior student Co-Heads McDougal, Eric Liu and Luke von Kapff for keeping students engaged and expectations high, citing the tryouts, mock invitational events, virtual watch parties and game nights that they organized.
"It was difficult to learn how to motivate ourselves and the team when we were virtual for most of the year," McDougal said. "We had to find ways to create a sense of community and really fuel our desire to succeed as a team despite the lack of contact."
"Adapting the team to a virtual environment was a tough task…" Liu added. "Every aspect of the season had to be changed in some fashion."
Despite the challenges of the past year, Liu credits Science Olympiad for teaching him how to learn at a rapid pace, and developing a mastery for new events at such a fast rate each year is a skill that will hopefully be useful in the future, he said.
Similarly, Science Olympiad has helped von Kapff develop valuable communication skills and articulate his thoughts, which he considers an applicable skill for all career paths.
"SO has enabled me to become a very creative problem-solver, as most of the tests rely on fundamental concepts that competitors must apply in complex situations," von Kapff said. "This has pushed my frame of mind to be more willing to think outside the box when approaching a problem, as well as made me more comfortable with failure if one problem-solving technique doesn't work and I must try another."
State Competitors and Results:
Seniors :
- Izzy Hester
7 th Place Dynamic Planet
7 th Place Fossils
- Eric Liu *
- 1 st Place Forensics
2 nd Place Protein Modeling
3 rd Place Detector Building
5 th Place Chem Lab
- Emilia McDougal *
1 st Place Experimental Design
7 th Place Dynamic Planet
- Louis Scheinfeld
- Luke Von Kapff *
1 st Place Circuit Lab
2 nd Place Geologic Mapping
4 th Place Machines
- Eleanor Winkler
3rd Place Detector Building
5 th Place Chem Lab
Juniors :
- Elizabeth Feoktistov
1 st Place Experimental Design
2 nd Place Boomilever
2 nd Place Anatomy & Physiology
6 th Place Wright Stuff
- Mia Moline
2 nd Place Boomilever
2 nd Place Geologic Mapping
6 th Place Wright Stuff
7 th Place Fossils
- Maryanne Xu
1 st Place Forensics
3 rd Place Designer Genes
3 rd Place Astronomy
7 th Place Ornithology
- Jacob Zheng
1 st Place Circuit Lab
9 th Place Sounds of Music
Sophomores :
- Charlotte Calkins
1 st Place Experimental Design
2 nd Place Protein Modeling
7 th Place Ornithology
- Zijun Deng
2 nd Place Anatomy & Physiology
2 nd Place Disease Detectives
4 th Place Machines
- Annabel Ma
2 nd Place Protein Modeling
3 rd Place Designer Genes
- Isaac Noel
2 nd Place Disease Detectives
3 rd Place Astronomy
3rd Place Water Quality
- Luke Peebler
3rd Place Water Quality
9 th Place Sounds of Music
* Co-Heads : Emilia McDougal, Eric Liu, Luke Von Kapff
Coaches : Kiimberly Dwan, Dave Haak, Antony Harper, Alexander Howe, Nathan Silvers, Harold Slav
