Science Olympiad is a club perfect for science buffs — it revolves entirely around learning and practicing different types of sciences, such as astronomy, geology, aerodynamics, and much more. A wide array of science topics is provided to students to choose a few to dedicate part of their year to learning or practicing, such as memorizing facts or building models, to compete in the competition that takes place in early January.

Christian Lopez poses onstage with his award for winning 3rd in a category titled Disease Detectives. Photo donated

In this competition, several schools meet in one school building and compete against one another in each category in an attempt to win and get to the state competition. Schools work their way up until they are against other schools from across the country and try to win the first prize.

Sophomore Christian Lopez, the third place winner of Disease Detectives, said the events were hard to perform in, but he greatly enjoyed them nonetheless. He hopes next year to study harder and make it to state competition, and says that everyone who joins needs to “Study hard please, don’t wait until the day before if you want to get to State.” Lopez states that developing an inconsistent study schedule for the competition will result in a lot of stress and panic, despite the fact that it is simply supposed to be a fun activity for science lovers to participate in.

Junior Wanqi Yuan, an officer of the club, gives similar advice: “My biggest piece of advice is to study and be dedicated.” The biggest problem that students face in the club is finding a good study schedule — the competition being so far makes it seem easy to slack off, but those who truly love their work will greatly enjoy spending some of their free time practicing their topic.