Co-Editor-in-Chief Chloe de Leon was interviewed for this article due to her expertise on the topic.
Dynamic Planet. Robot Tour. Astronomy. For Woodside’s Science Olympiad team, these seemingly unrelated topics led them to a first place victory at the Bay Area Regional Tournament last Saturday, qualifying them for the Northern California State Tournament on April 5.
This is a first in Woodside history and the furthest a Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) Science Olympiad team has made it within a competition. During Science Olympiad competitions, teams compete across 23 events inspired by ever-changing research in chemistry, physics, genetics, geology, mechanical engineering and technology.
Woodside scored first in eight events and medaled in 17 despite the stiff competition from 23 other competing teams. With four years under their belts, the team has since grown to 27 competing members divided across two teams, a new change to this years’ competitions.
“This year, we actually had two teams [compete] instead of one,” senior co-president of the Science Olympiad team Chloe de Leon said. “So we had two teams at regionals, and our ‘B team’ was incomplete, but they still placed in the middle of the pack.”
The club prepares year-around for their three main competitions: Stanford Invitational, Golden Gate Invitational and Bay Area Regional Tournament, with the latter used to qualify for the state tournament.
This year, the Alameda Regional Science Olympiad tournament was formed for Alameda County schools who, in past years, competed in the Bay Area Regional Tournament. Junior co-president of the Science Olympiad team Michael Tellis believed this helped the team as their strongest competition, Castro Valley High School, moved to this new tournament.
“The enthusiasm [this year] is really cool to see,” Tellis said. “[Last year] we didn’t really have any expectations that we were going to go anywhere. But this year, I think we put the idea that states are possible because we’re in a new region.”
In preparation for the tournament, the team increased the number of build events they participated in to better their score, a change from last year’s competitions. During build events, students must construct and design a structure or device before the tournament to perform a designated task. This varies from the traditional tests students must study and take during the various events.
“We definitely participated in every single build event, and that was helpful because not that many teams participate in build events,” de Leon said. “So you’re able to increase your score by doing well or semi-well.”
De Leon chalks up much of the success this year to numerous returning members and an increase in new dedicated students joining the team. Woodside additionally receives guidance from Stanford undergraduates through Stanford’s Adopt a SciOly Mentorship program and advisor Stephanie Finander.
“I definitely think now that our club is a little bit more developed, and Michael and I have a better idea of how to advise people on studying for their events, we have a lot more members who are returning for another year,” de Leon said. “That was really helpful in getting people to understand what they need to do in order to be successful at competitions.”
De Leon and Tellis won first place in the Astronomy event for the second year in a row. Tellis additionally placed first in two other events, including a win in Robot Tour, where students must build a robot car that is programmable to drive a track given on competition day.
In the three weeks leading up to the state competition, the team plans to continue studying and refining their builds. The competition will take place at California State University, East Bay in Hayward, California.
“Even though there’s a lot of really competitive schools at the state competition, we still want to do well,” de Leon said. “So I think the momentum we have going right now after this win is going to be really good for our team.”
