A Gold Medal Finish in the National Science Olympiad Tournament!

Brandon Woo ’15 took home what is probably Maine’s first ever gold medal at the National Science Olympiad Tournament with a first place finish in the Entomology event!

Brandon and his 14 Upper School teammates, who had worked so incredibly hard to win the Maine State Science Olympiad Tournament this past spring, traveled this weekend to Lincoln, Nebraska, to compete at the national tournament against the very best schools from all across the country. Students engineered bridges, proteins, air cannons, and more, and they studied for tests and labs in astronomy, forensics, entomology, and many more subjects.  There were a total of 23 events.

Brandon has been collecting and studying insects for many years — entomology is his passion.  His partner in the Entomology event was Christian Rowe ’16 who has been studying insects with Brandon for the past five months.  Not only did Brandon win first place in the nation for Entomology, he also finished impressively in his two other events, partnering with Chloe Williams ’15 in the Cell Biology event and assisting his teammate Scott Ralston ’15 in an excellent showing for the Scrambler, a vehicle propelled only by dropping a weight. The vehicle was then required to move in a straight line as quickly as possible and stop on its own at an exact distance before the egg attached to its tip crashed into a barrier at the end of the distance.

Other notable finishes included a finish in the top third of the country in the Air Trajectory event by juniors Peter Michalakes and Henry Johannen, and a rubber band powered airplane that flew gracefully and steadily for almost a minute and a half, built by sophomores Emily Tabb and Willson Moore. Seniors Ali Ghorashi and Jacob Hagler also placed well above our bracket in the Mission Possible event, for which they designed, constructed, and ran a highly technical Rube Goldberg device.

Seniors Julianna Harwood and Dana Pierce, juniors Arianna Giguere and Esme Benson, and sophomore Tim Clifford also competed well for Maine.  The team was coached by Science Chair Wendy Curtis and Science faculty Carol Titterton.

For more pictures of the competition, click here.