Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
Olympiad puts students to the test
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A number of budding young scientists and engineers put their nascent skills on display over the weekend in the first Hawaii Regional Science Olympiad at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii.
“This has been a dream come true for me to bring this kind of scientific competition to the island, something in addition to robotics that expands to the rest of the sciences,” HRSO Director Gail Loeffler said Sunday afternoon.
Seventeen high school and intermediate school teams entered the Big Island’s inaugural event. The students demonstrated their knowledge of astronomy, geology, optics and technical writing. They also built mousetrap-powered vehicles and wooden towers which were tested for strength relative to weight.
Franklin Allaire, director of the Hawaii State Science Olympiad, said the goal is “to get kids excited about science, plain and simple.”
Waiakea High School won the high school division, with Konawaena and Keaau the first and second runners-up, respectively. The intermediate school winner was Hawaiian Classical Christian Academy, with Hilo Seventh-day Adventist Homeschool finishing second and Hilo Intermediate School placing third.
Those teams advance to the Hawaii State Science Olympiad, March 3 at Leeward Community College on Oahu. The state champions will compete in the National Science Olympiad, May 18-19 in Orlando, Fla.
Two HCCA students, Noa Gagner and Dakota Hill, built a better mousetrap-powered car than the competition, and their wooden vehicle with compact-disc wheels was almost perfect on its first 10-meter run.
“It’s simple, no breaking system or anything and it works just like a mousetrap would work,” said Gagner, 14, an 8th grader. “The kinetic energy from the mousetrap pushing down makes the wheels spin.”
Waiakea Intermediate’s mousetrap-car builders, Kenneth Ikeda and Calvin Uemura, also used CDs for wheels.
“They were the roundest thing we could find that was light and easy,” Ikeda, a 13-year-old 8th grader, explained.
The SDA homeschoolers built a small tower with an octagonal base. The tower itself looked like a smaller version of the lighting towers used in stadium and arena rock shows. It easily supported 15 kilograms of sand in a plastic bucket.
“We drew out a bunch of designs to see which one we would like,” said 11-year-old Zach Gillespie, the youngest SDA team member.
Teammate Zach Davidson, a 12-year-old 6th grader, said there were doubts about the structure’s ability to handle the task, but teamwork prevailed.
“We thought our tower wouldn’t survive because our structure wasn’t good enough, but our friend Donald helped us,” he said.
Donald is Donald Chang, a 14-year-old 8th grader whose research prompted the team to build its tower with basswood.
“We used basswood, because I found out it was more flexible and stronger than balsa,” he said.
Another team was less successful, having to chop the top off its minimalist, pyramid-like tower to meet size specifications. The structure disintegrated under the weight of the chain used to suspend the bucket, even without any sand. No one in the audience laughed or jeered; the team, in fact, received a warm round of applause for its efforts.
“Even if something doesn’t work right, everybody’s really supportive, everybody’s friendly,” Allaire said.
“The two things that I hope the kids come away with in this competition is one, they have fun, and two, that they learn something. And it could be something about science, it could be something about themselves, it could be something about working as a team. As long as they have fun and they learn something, then we’re happy at the end of the day.”
On the Internet: www.hsso.org
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.