Spring was a season of success for North Shore schools’ science olympiad teams.
New Trier High School and Marie Murphy School had historic finishes in the 41st annual Science Olympiad National Tournament on May 23-24, when they competed against peers from across the country.
New Trier placed sixth overall in Division C for Grades 9-12; Marie Murphy placed 10th in Division B for Grades 6-9.
To qualify for the national competition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, teams each had to secure a top-two finish at the Illinois Science Olympiad State Tournament in April at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. New Trier placed first in Division C, winning a 17th Illinois championship, and Marie Murphy placed second in Division B.
Wilmette Junior High School also secured its first-ever top 10 finish at the state competition, as reported by The Record.
Regional, state and national competitions make up science olympiad’s championship season. Teams competing in the championship events are allowed 15 members to cover 27 events. Twenty-three of the events count toward a team’s total score, while the remaining four are trial events that do not affect placement.
New Trier
New Trier’s sixth-place national finish was the school’s highest finish in 13 years.
Led by team co-heads Kevin Huang, Kaci Morris and Malachi Noel, New Trier medaled in 12 events (medals awarded through sixth place) to set a new school record.
New Trier’s medals included three first-place finishes (Astronomy, Dynamic Planet, Geological Mapping), one second-place (Optics), a third-place (Codebusters), two fourth-place (Bungee Drop, Ecology), one fifth-place (Protein Modeling) and four sixth-place (Electric Vehicle, Materials Science, Wind Power, Hovercraft).
Antony Harper has helped coach New Trier’s science olympiad team since 2005. As an assistant coach, he advises students in biology events and occasionally Earth science events at the team’s weekly practices. Outside of practice times, he is available for students to consult him about additional questions.
“If you take a look at the individual events, you’ll see that they’re not for the faint hearted,” Harper said. “I mean students not only have to master a lot of basic information, but they also have to be able to think on their feet … so I’m there to help them with all of that.”
As the championship season progresses, Harper said that the attitude of the team becomes more intense to match the circumstances, but he doesn’t put an expectation on the team to win. Instead he works on bringing out the students’ best, letting the score “take care of itself.”
Science olympiad competitions are scored on a points system, where the lowest amount of points corresponds to the top finisher. At the national tournament, New Trier scored 290 total points, finishing 40 points behind the national champ.
Although Harper retired from teaching in 2012, he said he thinks of working with New Trier’s science olympiad team as one of the greatest experiences of his career.
New Trier’s success this season is a joint accomplishment by the students, coaches and parents, Harper said. He described the team’s sixth-place finish at Nationals as “excellent.”
“The fact that they were able to keep the focus through regional, state and nationals is a monumental accomplishment,” Harper said.
Full New Trier results: First in Astronomy — Malachi Noel and Jerry Du; first in Dynamic Planet — Malachi Noel and Alice Pan; first in Geological Mapping — Malachi Noel and Kaci Morris; second in Optics — Kevin Huang and Nora Witting; third in Codebusters — Catherine Ji, Elan Hao and Vivian Chen; fourth in Bungee Drop — Catherine Ji and Nora Witting; fourth in Ecology — Kaci Morris and Kate Kang; fifth in Protein Modeling (Trial) — Cassie Li, Michelle Ren and Carolyn Li; sixth in Electric Vehicle — Kevin Huang and Ary Varshney; sixth in Materials Science — Elan Hao and Albert Zhu; sixth in Wind Power — Jerry Du and Ary Varshney; sixth in Hovercraft (Trial) — Elijah Song and Stephen Stolyarov.
Marie Murphy
Marie Murphy’s performance at the national tournament netted the school a second straight 10th-place finish.
Students medaled in six events with two first-place finishes (Dynamic Planet, Scrambler), two fifth-place finishes (Ecology, Meteorology) and two sixth-place finishes (Entomology, Tower).
James Gravagna, an eighth-grade science teacher at Marie Murphy, has coached science olympiad for 29 years. He said it is a “blessing” for Marie Murphy to do as well as they did at in major competitions considering the high caliber of schools in Illinois and the size of Marie Murphy compared to others in the events.
“For what they accomplished for our size, I could not be more proud of them,” Gravagna said.
The championship team was composed of a sixth-grader, three seventh-graders and 11 eighth-graders, Gravagna said, who added that, typically, the older students take on more events.
Participating in science olympiad requires discipline, he said, and students have approximately one hour of practice per event per week in addition to homework to further study their materials.
“These are highly motivated students who already get good grades and put a lot of time into their normal core classes and the other extracurricular activities they do,” Gravagna said.
Throughout the competitions, students support each other through the ups and downs, Gravagna said. Gravagna also keeps his students grounded, reminding them not to take the competitions too seriously.
“We always tell them you’ve put in all the work, just go out there and do the best you can,” Gravagna said.
Full Marie Murphy results: First in Dynamic Planet — Nathan Zitzner and Nathan Hsin; first in Scrambler — Emma Song and Loukya Prabhu; fifth in Ecology — Nathan Hsin and Aaiza Khwaja; fifth in Meteorology — Sera Izenstark and Nathan Hsin; sixth in Entomology — Sera Izenstark and Eli Routsalis; sixth in Tower — Nadiya Kundu and Jaya Vasudevan
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