DALLAS, Pa. — Penn State Wilkes-Barre welcomed hundreds of middle and higher college students all through the area for an annual science competitors on March eight.
The Northeast Regional Science Olympiad tournament brought much more than 800 students from 27 higher schools and 15 middle schools across northeastern Pennsylvania to participate in a daylong interscholastic competitors. The occasion has been held at Penn State Wilkes-Barre for much more than two decades.
Science Olympiad is an international nonprofit organization devoted to enhancing the high-quality of science education, rising student interest in science and giving recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by each students and teachers. Students compete in intramural, district, state and national tournaments throughout their time with Science Olympiad. Teams of 15 students are challenged by STEM-associated events that span biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, engineering and inquiry. Students ordinarily function in pairs constructing devices for testing at tournaments, studying for core expertise challenges and preparing for rigorous hands-on lab experiments. The tournament challenges and activities support prepare them to function as element of a group in a future STEM profession.
The Northeast Regional Science Olympiad tournament featured a total of 46 events (23 for middle college and 23 for higher college) covering a variety of disciplines of science. Interactive events have been also a substantial element of the day, with competitive activities like “Storm the Castle,” exactly where student teams constructed mechanical devices to launch objects more than a wall, and “Wheeled Automobile,” in which students constructed a automobile that had to travel a specified distance and navigate obstacles with precision and accuracy.
“We appear forward to hosting Science Olympiad every year,” mentioned Timothy Sichler, assistant teaching professor of electrical engineering at Penn State Wilkes-Barre and coordinator of the Northeast Regional Science Olympiad tournament at the campus. “It’s wonderful to see the turnout of students in our area who are interested in STEAM and associated profession paths. We’ve observed former Science Olympiad competitors go on to turn out to be health-related pros, engineers and beyond. Some of them initially sparked their interests in the sciences via their participation in the tournament right here at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.”
The day concluded with awards and closing ceremonies in the Athletic and Recreation Developing at Penn State Wilkes-Barre. Chris Bohinski of Pa Reside! served as host of the award ceremony for the second year. The highest scoring teams from the neighborhood tournament have been invited to compete in the state tournament to be held at Penn State Altoona on April 22. In the higher college division, these teams have been Athens Region Higher College, initially location North Pocono Higher College, second location Dallas Higher College, third location Stroudsburg Higher College, fourth location Pocono Mountain East Higher College, fifth location and Wallenpaupack Region Higher College, sixth location. In the middle college division, these schools have been Harlan Rowe Middle College, initially location North Pocono Junior Higher College, second location Abington Heights Middle College, third location Wayne Highlands Middle College, fourth location Wyalusing Valley Junior/Senior Higher College, fifth location Pocono Mountain East Junior Higher College, sixth location Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior Higher College, seventh location and Wilkes-Barre Academy, eighth location.
Sponsors for the occasion have been Gosh Yarn It, C&G Tutoring and Mark J. Sobeck Roof Consulting Inc.