Woodside’s recently formed Science Olympiad club is preparing for their first competition, which will be held from March 7 to 9.
The competition will take place online at school in order to comply with COVID safety precautions.
“[Science Olympiad] is a science competition,” team captain and Science Olympiad organizer Henry Le Chang explained. “There are different events… [such as] chemistry lab cell, bio lab, anatomy, and physiology. Some of them are tests, and some of them are labs.”
Le Chang and club vice president Max Lee co-founded the club this past December.
“Most other schools have teams… Sequoia has two teams already, but this is our first year,” Le Chang said. “It’s been a bit of a slow start, but we’re pulling things together.”
With only ten people, the team is just starting to get its bearings.
“Our goals for this year are quite minimal since we didn’t really get the word out there until the end of January, so a lot of members haven’t been able to study much,” Lee stated. “We just want to get a feel for it.”
Despite the small size of the team, scheduling has already proved difficult.
“Our [main] challenge is definitely scheduling conflicts,” Le Chang stated. “A lot of people have sports and other things. It’s hard to schedule events.”
When the team does manage to figure out a time to meet, teamwork plays a large factor in preparation for the competitions.
“Usually we only meet all together once every two weeks to discuss schedules,” Le Chang stated. “And then people who are a part of the same event usually study together.”
Under the leadership of Le Chang and Lee, the team hopes to continue to improve in years to come.
“Next year I hope to get more members, be more prepared, and hopefully place in the top ten in the regional,” Le Chang stated.
