KUTZTOWN, Pa. — Teenagers building bridges and trebuchets may seem like a strange way to spend a Thursday, but it is a popular part of the regional Science Olympiad competition coming to the area next week.
The Central East Regional PA Science Olympiad will be hosted on March 16 by Kutztown University for the 14th anniversary competition.
A science olympiad is a conference with events meant to stimulate scientific thinking and learning, according to Joann Monko, one of the organizers of the CE Regional Olympiad.
Twenty high schools and approximately 400 will participate in the regional competition, some of which are from Lehigh and Northampton counties.
“Kutztown University is very happy to host our budding scientists in this event and we look forward to seeing them soon.”Joann Monko, organizer of the Central East Pennsylvania Science Olympiad
Emmaus High School, Allentown Central Catholic High School, Nazareth Area High School, Northampton Area High School, Northwestern Lehigh High School, Parkland High School, Whitehall High School and Liberty High School are all participating.
As Monko says, “Each high school will bring 15 students between ninth and 12th grade. They work in teams of two or three. They can compete in 23 different events, and it reaches all branches of science.”
What the events are is where it gets fun, Monko explained: “ Some of them have lab setups like environmental chem, as well as chemistry, we have anatomy and physiology.
“Some of the more active events make the students build things, there's bridge building. So the students will use balsa wood and build a bridge and test how their construction will hold sand, how many pounds of sand before it breaks.
“There's ‘trajectory,’ where they're doing a trebuchet-type event," she said.
Monko went on to list some other concepts.
“‘Scrambler,’ they're going to build a vehicle that will have an egg in front. And they have to get it as close to the wall as they can without smashing the egg.
“Some are test events like forestry and green generation, farming questions, code busters. All sorts of good stuff.”
The building events let students design and execute their builds over the course of months, with a designated testing time frame. The testing events require students to learn as much as possible about a subject and be quizzed on the facts.
When asked what it takes to qualify for regionals, Monko answered simply.
“They have to be interested.”
When she elaborated, Monko pointed out that regionals are the first qualifying event, of which the top five placing teams go to the state competition. From there the top two teams at each level (both middle and high school) go to nationals. There are no middle schools competing in the Central East regionals this year.
Monko finished, “Kutztown University is very happy to host our budding scientists in this event and we look forward to seeing them soon.”
The Central East Regional Pennsylvania Science Olympiad will start at 8:30 a.m. on March 16 at Kutztown University.
