CHS’s Science Olympiad team will attend the Wright State Invitational on Feb. 6. The event is a precursor to the national qualifying state tournament in late March.

Cynthia Henry, club sponsor and science teacher, said there are not any requirements to compete in the Wright State Invitational other than signing up through the club.

The club will divide 30 students into two teams to compete in 23 events. There is a testing process the Science Olympiad team will go through to determine the team members. Results from the Northridge Invitational in January and other testing will also affect who will be on the teams that go to the Wright State Invitational.

Darren Chang, club officer and junior, said the Science Olympiad team began preparation months ago because of the higher level competition they expect to face. Many teams, specifically ones from Ohio and Texas, will present a challenge for CHS’s team.

Chang said via email, “Since October, the team has met weekly on Wednesday and sometimes on Saturday to compile notes, take practice exams and finish builds for engineering-based events. We’ve taken multiple rounds of intra-squad testing to determine team readiness and decide who will be competing.”

He continued, “So, this season we are focusing on improving our weaker events, which are usually engineering-based. We have spent a lot of time improving builds such as Wright Stuff, a rubber motor powered aircraft, and Wind Power, building a wind turbine.”

According to Chang, teams of two or three people work together in events but they are individually scored in selection testing, eventually accounting for the total score.

The events themselves include all kinds of science. There are more traditional events such as chemistry lab and protein modeling, and there are engineering events such as bridge building and creating a “robot arm”.

Scoring is similar to golf because the goal is to earn the least amount of points. A first place finish in one event is rewarded with one point.

Chang said the Science Olympiad team decided to attend the Wright State Invitational this year because it had both the funds and the motivation to compete.

He said the team as a whole wants to gain more experience by entering higher level competitions.

Chang said, “Our team hopes to gain much-needed competitive experience out of the Wright State Invitational and find out what our most lackluster events are and improve on them before the national-qualifying state tournament in late March.”