(Flickr)

Established in 2014, Columbus Academy’s relatively new Upper School Science Olympiad Team had its first meeting of the year last October. For those who are unfamiliar with the Science Olympiad competition, its main objective is to test students’ adeptness in solving different challenges by applying their knowledge of science.

In the weekly practices that followed, the 16 members, led by senior captains, Zach Zhou and Andy Zhang, and teacher advisor, Moira Landes, prepared for the competition’s 23 events, which covered a large variety of science-related topics from Astronomy to Optics to online research and hand-on building. 

The months of preparation paid off with a very promising and outstanding 3rd place finish at the Grandview Heights Regional Tournament in March. The team, feeling confident and well-prepped, made some minor changes to their building events before heading to the Science Olympiad State Tournament, hosted by The Ohio State University on Saturday, April 28.

After a strong showing at the competition, the team earned a 23rd finish out of 40 teams with several top 10 state performances, a major improvement from last year.

1st in Chemistry Lab by sophomore Alex Wang and senior Andy Zhang

5th in Materials Science by junior Aden Weiser and senior Andy Zhang

6th in Thermodynamics by sophomore Alex Wang and senior Randy Yan

9th in Ecology by juniors Aden Weiser and Ginnie Ma

While seniors Zach Zhou, Andy Zhang, Liana Shiroma, Jane Li, Shreyah Mohanselvan, Yujie Wang, and Randy Yan will be deeply missed, juniors Aden Weiser and Ginnie Ma, the captains for next year, are more than ready to step up and take the team to the next level.