Science Olympiad Team represents Maine at National Tournament in Orlando, Florida

Fifteen Upper School students competed against 59 other teams from around the nation on Saturday, May 17^that the beautiful University of Central Florida (UCF is the second largest University in the United States with 60,000 undergrads).

The team was seeded 51^st going into the tournament (because Maine has a small state tournament compared to most other states).  Our strategy this year was for students to focus on one of their three individual events to get as high a ranking as possible in selected events (there are 23 events).  We did notably well in 13 of the events (see below).  Waynflete’s performance resulted in one of if not the highest ranking Maine has ever had in the 30 year-old national tournament (48th overall).

Despite our “Mission Possible” (a Rube Goldberg machine) being lost by our airline and delivered to us 16 hours after we landed and two hours before it was due to compete, the team’s resilience, intelligence, enthusiasm, camaraderie and ability to roll with the punches was impressive.  We are extremely proud to have finished in the top 20 in three events (Maine has never done this): the Scrambler (a vehicle with a raw egg perched on its tip), Entomology, and Write It Do It (a test of technical communication skills).  We also had remarkable success in Astronomy, Disease Detectives, Forensics, Technical Problem Solving, and Water Quality.  We beat our seed in Anatomy and Physiology, Designer Genes, Elastic Launch Glider, Geologic Mapping, and Mission Possible.  We had a few unforeseen disasters, but we are learning from our mishaps!  We also had way too much fun!  Congratulations team!

The team was lead by Captain Lydia Fox and seniors Sally Li, Sophie Benson, Avalena Linsky, Quinn Shivel, Nate Hansen and Louis Frumer.  Our juniors were Ali Ghorashi, Jacob Hagler, Brandon Woo and Julianna Harwood.  Sophomore competitors were Arianna Giguere, Esme Benson, Elly Shivel and Gail Johnson.  The team was coached by Carol Titterton (6-12 Science) and Wendy Curtis (Science Chair).

To view a gallery of pictures from Orlando, click here.