by Ryan Zurbuchen
posted May 18, 2017, 7:46 AM by Sarah Jones
Kami King, Cameron Johnson, and a few other Elk Mound students competed in an Science Olympiad state event April 7-8 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after they qualified by going to the regional meet to challenge their science skills against other students.
Kami King placed 12th overall in Code Busters, and 30th in both Anatomy and Physiology and Microbe Mission while competing against other students in her event.
“I have been in many events throughout the year, but my favorite events were Code Busters, Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry Lab, Rocks and Minerals, and Experimental Design,” Kami stated. “Although every event is different and fun to do, the ones I enjoyed the most were the ones that made your mind think like a puzzle finding the solution piece by piece.”
Elk Mound as a whole didn’t have enough people competing as a whole to place as a team, but the individual competitors performed very well in their events, exceeding expectations.
“I love the sheer competitiveness of Science Olympiad events and how it in general makes me smart,” Makenna Zurbuchen, a past Science Olympiad competitor explained.
. The progression of the Elk Mound Science Olympiad team has exceeded everyone's beliefs. As a small program that started only a couple years ago they have almost tripled in size and have started sending students to state meets where we should show our talents against students from all across the state.
“I joined Science Olympiad my freshman year, because I heard from the upperclassmen that it was really fun, I got to meet new people, and I really like science,” Kami said.
A lot of people don’t realize the how big of a thing this is for a small school like Elk Mound. By getting the chance to go to state we are showing larger cities that we may be small, but we still have just as much talent as they do in Science Olympiad.
“I had to go to a regional Science Olympiad meet and place well in any of my events in order to be qualified for state,” Cameron told me.
When you are at a state meet you are working with other people from your school and competing against other schools groups. In most events you are in a groups of 2 going against other groups of 2, but other events are more difficult than the rest and they call for groups of 3.
“Each event has up to 2 people in them, but there are some events that require 3. The ones I did that required 3 were Code busters and Experimental design,” Kami explained.