Recently students at Moooreville High School competed in the Science Olympiad. Students competed in many competitions and were able to place very well in all the competitions. I sat down with Mooreville’s Amy Hagood and Jennifer Gray, supporters and sponsors, to talk about the competition and overall experience of being able to compete against so many other schools. In total ten students competed in the first competition, and all were able to advance forward to the second. There is a national competition which our group was able to advance to but won’t be able to compete due to the competition conflicting with this year’s graduation ceremony. When speaking to Mrs. Hagood and Mrs. Gray, we spoke about the challenges the group faced. Student Tommy Towery brought the idea of competing in the competition to Mrs. Gray, and together they decided it would be a great opportunity for the students. Since it was so late in the year when the idea was brought forth they didn’t really have any time to properly prepare. Once it was decided that they would most definitely be competing in the upcoming competitions, students were very hands on in the process of getting everything ready for the competitions. They put together countless projects and were able to get the necessities together in time to compete. While competing, they didn’t face many difficulties other than projects failing at the last minute or trying to stay calm while not knowing what to expect from the competition.
Other than the few difficulties the whole competition was truly a fun experience. When speaking to Mrs. Hagood and Mrs. Gray I asked what their favorite part of the experience was. “It was great to be able to be there with other adults and watch the students get to experience something like this.” They also told me about the laughs they shared while watching the students compete. We also spoke about how they felt the students felt about the experience. “Students loved being able to be involved and hands-on in the entire experience. The whole time they were there was spent running around getting to watch or compete in so many different things. They also got to spend time with their peers who were there and just got to enjoy the experience all together.” In all they both believe that the overall best thing for them and the students was being able to compete against students in bigger more advanced schools then they were. Being able to prove to themselves and other students around them that they belonged there and that they were capable of winning. Even though our students were not as prepared as the other schools they were able to place in many of the events such as: Wifi Lab -1st place, Trajectory – 1st place, Scrambler – 2nd place, Write it do it – 2nd place, Solar power – 3rd place.
They faced other difficulties other than just the competition though. They faced the difficulty of not really having the funds needed for the competition. They plan, if they continue to compete, to hopefully have better funding by means of fundraising. While we were speaking the topic of future competitions did arise. Currently they are not sure if the school will continue competing in years to come. There are many factors weighing on the decision to continue to compete. They have to see if there will be dedicated students willing to compete in the competitions. Students have to be willing to be completely dedicated to preparing for the competition months in advance. There would also have to be a lot of fundraising done in order to be able to make it to the competitions but also students may have to realize that additional funding may fall on them to cover. If they do decide to compete they would have to make sure competitors knew in advance what they were competing in so that they could be preparing for it in time.
Staff Writer, Ava Vanlandingham