Editor’s Note: LSA junior Grace Lee, who was interviewed for this article, is a former Michigan Daily staffer. Lee did not contribute to the writing or editing of this article.
Hundreds of middle and high schoolers from across the country participated in University of Michigan Science Olympiad’s 10th annual invitational Feb. 14. Founded in 2017, the invitational allows participants to use the University’s facilities and resources, along with tests written by top prior Science Olympiad competitors. Participants included almost 100 teams from across the country — primarily from the Midwest — preparing for their respective state and national competitions that take place later in the academic year.
Science Olympiad is a hands-on science, technology, engineering and math competition. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA junior Grace Lee, UMSO executive director, described the different forms of competition at the invitational, including building electric vehicles and identifying microbiomes.
“There are events, like builds, where students make a contraption that we test,” Lee said. “They’re obviously given certain parameters, so they’re scored on how well it works. One event that I feel like most people will be familiar with is bridges, where they use balsa wood to make a bridge and try to see how much weight it can withstand.”
UMSO expanded in recent years, hosting not just Saturday’s invitational but the regional tournament for Michigan Region 9 in March, a competition between eight counties in Michigan’s West Central Lower Peninsula. Lee said UMSO’s expansion has led the club to welcome teams from states outside of Michigan
“When we first started, our invitational was mainly geared towards teams in the Midwest as a form of practice,” Lee said. “We now have a lot more teams coming from different states and we’ve grown from getting like 30 teams, now to consistently 90 to 100 teams.”
In an interview with The Daily, Jonathan Hanson, Pioneer High School head coach and public policy lecturer, said drawing participants from across the country is beneficial to the University.
“It’s not just Michigan,” Hanson said. “We’ve got, like, the entire region, from Wisconsin to Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and even some California teams this year. It’s a big draw, and it brings people to campus, and they get to see the University of Michigan.”
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Engineering sophomore Peter Wang, a member of UMSO’s test evaluation team, emphasized the importance of coaching for successful Science Olympiad teams.
“It really starts with a good coaching base and having available resources at the school, having someone to help build the team from the ground up — that’s the really, really hard part,” Wang said. “For some schools, like Novi and Troy and (Ann Arbor) Pioneer, it’s gonna be easier for them because they have a structure laid out before them.”
Hanson said that many of the members who now help organize these events were once Science Olympiad participants.
“I’m just really happy to have such an active Science Olympiad organization here,” Hanson said. “All these (college) students, almost all of them, have come from a Science Olympiad when they were younger, or they’re just interested in helping out. It’s just an amazing resource for the state just to have an active college-level organization running Science Olympiad.”
Hanson said Science Olympiad allows participants to learn through hands-on experiences, giving participants the chance to grow intellectually outside the classroom.
“These students are able to challenge themselves at a level that goes well beyond what happens in the usual classroom,” Hanson said. “People have to really figure things out, do things with their hands, learn how to use tools, et cetera.”
Wang said watching the participants and organizers celebrate each other in their endeavors through the competition creates a memorable experience for him.
“Seeing everyone have a great time and celebrating their success, celebrating their learning, I think ultimately that’s the goal,” Wang said. “That’s the goal of this and why we run it. And yeah, just the atmosphere, the adrenaline, all of that is really incredible.”
Daily Staff Reporters Shaena Foley and Adelaide Ellis can be reached out to at snfoley@umich.edu and arellis@umich.edu.