Science Olympiad Places 10th in the State

After placing first in their regional competition earlier this year, John Jay's Science Olympiad team secured tenth place at the state competition on March 16th after placing in the top ten in eight events, and even landed first place in the Robot Tour event.

The competition unfolded at LeMoyne College in Syracuse over a two-day period, featuring the 60 best teams from across New York State. This marks John Jay’s second consecutive year placing top ten out of 573 state-wide teams and their second year in a row securing the first place trophy at the regional competition.

This year, top ten medals were awarded to John Jay students in Ecology, Engineering CAD (trial event), Forensics, Flight, Geologic Mapping, Wind Power, and Write It, Do It. There were many memorable moments throughout the competition for Science Olympiad members including an inspirational speech, the award ceremony, and of course the testing itself. 

This year, the Robot Tour team (Nash Pillai and Arnav Mishra) did something truly special, as they completed the course within 0.23 seconds and 2 centimeters of the target securing John Jay’s only first place medal of the year with many team members watching, ready to celebrate with them.

 Arnav Mishra, shared when asked about the experience, “I’m not going to lie, we built the robot in 30 minutes and spent the night before States fixing the bugs in our code, but I’m really proud of how it turned out. [It was] definitely one of the best moments of the competition.” 

Discussing their favorite Science Olympiad States moments, many of the upperclassmen reflect fondly on last year's Flight, describing it as “feeling like a true movie moment,” as the team was given one last shot to fly the airplane after it had collided with another midair during their time block earlier in the day. Since their last chance was after all events had ended, the entire team of 15 people and 4 alternates trekked down to the gymnasium, sat in the overhead balcony viewing area dangling their legs, and watched Jacob Leobandung and Shaylen Bhatt secure a first place medal with a flight time of 2 minutes and 28 seconds. 

Science Olympiad operates as a team competition where students actively engage in pairs or trios across a series of events, aiming to outperform rival teams. Like golf, the ultimate objective is to secure the lowest total score, calculated based on the placements across 23 events. 

At the beginning of the year, John Jay forms A, B, and C teams as club members take placement tests in events they are interested in. Officers and advisors arrange them based on score and their ability to work with a potential partner. While teams are made early on, movement between the teams is common, as invitational competitions allow younger team members to gain experience and showcase their skill. 

The events are categorized into six sections: Build, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Physics, and Miscellaneous. Each category comprises several events that may rotate or adjust their topics over time.

Under the leadership of co-presidents Jacob Leobandung and Alex Zhu, with the supervision of Mr. Freedman, the build event duos meet on Mondays, Thursdays, and other miscellaneous days. Teams collaborate to construct devices for Air Trajectory, Robot Tour, Scrambler, Flight, and Tower events.

For Air Trajectory, partners craft a device within specified size and material parameters, utilizing air to propel a projectile towards two predetermined distances and a bucket target. 

For Scrambler, teams construct cars and launchers to navigate within parameters, aiming to reach within millimeters of the center of the wall without damaging an egg attached to the front of the car. 

In Robot Tour, competitors bring their premade robots and are given ten minutes to adapt their code to a track they have never seen before, aiming to complete it as close as possible to the given time and finish on the target point. 

The Flight event entails constructing and flying planes within a gymnasium, while Tower participants engineer towers within constraints, testing their load-bearing capacity with kilograms of sand until fracturing. The goal is to achieve the lightest tower, usually under 8 grams, while sustaining a maximum weight of 15 kg.

Science Olympiad’s knowledge based events are overseen by Knowledge President Naflah Mohammad, respective category captains, Mr. Freedman, Mrs. Miller, and Mrs. Morsey These events predominantly involve test-based assessments. Partners dedicate their time to preparing note sheets and undertaking practice tests on Mondays after the general meetings.

Biology events encompass Anatomy and Physiology, Ecology, Disease Detectives, and Microbe Mission. Participants are permitted one note sheet per pair and delve into studying human body systems, ecosystems, epidemiology, and microbial diversity.

Chemistry events feature written tests and laboratory tasks. Partners in Forensics and Chemistry Lab events are equipped with two note sheets per pair and a kit containing permitted supplies. Forensics competitors unravel criminal cases through various analyses, including substance, fiber, hair, and plastic identifications. Chemistry lab participants tackle different topics annually, completing corresponding experiments.

Earth Science events this year include Fossils, Forestry, Geologic Mapping, and Dynamic Planet. Partners rely on binders of extensive notes to identify fossils and trees, and to explore past, present, and future global and environmental changes as well as geology. Additionally, Astronomy finds its place in the Earth Science category, as participants utilize computer-based notes to tackle questions on stellar evolution and orbital mechanics.

Physics events are part build and part test. During Wind Power testing, partners construct a wind turbine and take a test on wind turbines, renewable energy, and aerodynamics. For the Optics event, partners complete a laser beam mirror refraction and a written test on light, lenses, mirrors, color theory, and the anatomy of the eye.

Miscellaneous events are widely loved and seen as explorations of the scientific method. They include Write It, Do It which is a communication event in which one partner describes a structure and the other follows their written directions to rebuild it. In Experimental Design, trios design, conduct, and report on experiments based on a prompt given within the standard 50 minute time block. Code Busters is another three person event where teams cryptanalyze and decode messages and cyphers. Fermi Questions is the final two-person event where teammates use Fermi’s statistical laws to estimate to the nearest power of ten arbitrary statistics such as the number of piano tuners in the city of Chicago, Illinois. 

As the John Jay Science Olympiad season comes to a close for this year, members are eager to compete again next year in an attempt to finally advance to the national level—an ambitious goal which requires placing in the top two teams in New York State. 

If you are interested in competing with our school's Science Olympiad team, then stop by at room 273 after school one Monday next year to catch a meeting, or talk to any of the advisors.