2012 North Carolina Science Olympiad

Wilmington Regional High School and Middle School Students to Compete in a Regional Science Olympiad Tournament at UNC Wilmington

Close to one thousand high school and middle school students from all over the southeastern North Carolina will compete in numerous science and engineering events at the Wilmington Regional Science Olympiad on Saturday, March 3rd, at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The Center for Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (CESTEM) will host the event.

Olympiad officials are expecting 45 middle and high school teams from Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, and Pender counties. Competing in 46 different events, the teams are vying for the opportunity to represent the Wilmington Region at the State Science Olympiad in Raleigh, North Carolina, April 27th -28th, 2012.

"We expect over 1000 visitors on campus," said Dennis Kubasko, director of the Wilmington Region Science Olympiad. "We stress that the purpose of this competition is for students to learn, explore, experiment and be engaged with the wonders of the scientific endeavor! While every student has an opportunity to compete in individual events, what matters most is their cumulative score and participation as a team."

North Carolina Science Olympiad (NCSO) is a nonprofit organization with the mission to attract and retain the pool of K-12 students entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees and careers in North Carolina. Every year NCSO hosts tournaments on university, community college, and public school campuses across the state. These tournaments are rigorous academic interscholastic competitions that consist of a series of different hands-on, interactive, challenging and inquiry-based events that are well balanced between the various disciplines of biology, earth science, environmental science, chemistry, physics, engineering and technology.

Each year, 450 K-12 schools representing over 8,000 students and 60 counties in North Carolina participate in NCSO activities. Time Warner Cable’s Connect-a-Million-Minds initiative is a vital partner and assists with funding for event. Regional Science Olympiad is so fortunate to have volunteers from General Electric, E2 America, UNCW’s Watson School of Education and College of Arts and Sciences, and New Hanover County Schools. NCSO is indebted to the thousands of volunteers that donate their time each year to making our activities a success.

The challenging and self-motivating events of NCSO align with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study as well as the National Science Education Standards. The events are designed to enhance and strengthen both science content and process skills.

Some of the most popular events include:

Towers: In this building event, teams will design and build a tower constructed from wood and glue capable of bearing a load. At the competition teams will place their tower on the testing platform, and load sand into a bucket suspended and supported by the tower. The tower will be loaded until either the tower breaks or 15 kg is held, whichever occurs first.
Crime Busters: In this lab based event, teams will be given a crime scenario which they will be asked to solve based on evidence they gather and test. Teams will then be asked to analyze the information they have gathered to identify a suspect and solve the crime
Rocks and Minerals: In this station event, teams rotate through viewing any combination of samples, pictures, or recorded/written descriptions. Teams will be asked to answer questions (multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, generating graphs or charts, etc) about the sample, including identification, classification by properties, origin, uses and importance.
Forestry: In this station event, teams will be assessed on their knowledge of North American Trees, including identification, structural and ecological characteristics. Students are asked to prepare for the event by reviewing all North Carolina trees.
Bottle Rocket: In this building event, teams will build 2 water rockets using a 1 LITER (or less) CARBONATED BEVERAGE BOTTLE. At the competition, teams will have up to 10 minutes to launch their rocket(s) for the greatest time aloft.

"Students don't just build complicated devices," Kubasko explained. "They participate in events that are meant to challenge their ability to solve problems and come up with answers to science-related challenges. Students prepare all year for this event and the atmosphere is electrifying. It is hard to believe this is an academic event, but it is awesome to see the young generation excited about learning, science, and being involved in team work."

UNCW faculty and students and community volunteers will design events that will produce scores that result in an overall point total to determine first-, second-, third-, and fourth-place medal winners, with trophies from state and national organizations going to the top finishers in each division. Top finishers qualify to compete at the State Tournament held in Raleigh at N.C. State University on April 27th and 28th. The top two placing teams at the State Tournament will advance to the National Tournament and represent North Carolina at the National Science Olympiad at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on May 18th and 19th, 2012.