State Science Olympiad Director Vanessa Quinn once saw a t-shirt that describes science perfectly.
Most people seem to think that science is doing something and having it work the way you think it’s going to, she said during a moment in which she could sit down at the State Competition at Purdue Northwest Saturday. But rarely — if ever — does it happen that way.
“Everyone thinks it’s you do an experiment and it’s ‘Eureka!,’ but the shirt showed that you do the experiment, and it’s a lot of repetition and ‘(Expletive! Expletive! Expletive! Expletive!)’” she said, laughing. “Sometimes, you have to laugh at how things end up, and I just want all our kids to have a good time here today.”
Twenty-three high schools and 24 middle schools showed up for the competition, and there were a lot of smiles. Munster’s Wilbur Wright Middle School team appeared chill during their lunch break, though some of the students veered perilously close to the comical side of trial-and-error.
Vihaan Kodiyath, a WWMS 8th grader, said part of his helicopter broke during competition, and though he tried to glue it, it just “didn’t work out.” Ishaan Ramaswamy and Amelia Sun, meanwhile, ran into some trouble in potions.
“Ishaan spilled ammonia over the chromatography paper, and it was hard to see where the water line was, but I could kind of,” Ameila, a 7th grader said. “It was kind of stressful.”
Whatever mistakes they may have made didn’t matter much, as Wilbur Wright garnered first place overall and will head to the national competition, PNW announced late Saturday night.
The Thomas Jefferson Middle School students were also feeling pretty good during their break despite some snafus at Regionals. Kate Sanders, the Valparaiso juggernaut’s new coach, couldn’t have been prouder, and TJ ended up in second place overall — not enough to get them to Nationals at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May, but still an impressive feat.
“I was a student in the program when I was a kid, and I have some big shoes to fill. This is an amazing legacy Richard Bender and Carol Haller left,” Sanders said. “But the kids are feeling confident, and it’s been an adventure.”
Blake Siegrist, a TJ 7th grader, remembers feeling stressed last year competing at state because it was new to him. Saturday, he was all smiles.
“Some of the things were different, but having the same room and same event supervisor made it better,” he said.
Cassius Coduti, a WWMS 7th grader, could relate to Blake’s experience.
“You’re more sure of what you’re doing this year,” he said.
WWMS Coach Erika Glombicki said she felt her kids were doing way better than expected and was relieved at all the happy faces.
“I’ve enjoyed watching them grow this year with their events,” she said.
Quinn, who’s also associate dean of PNW’s College of Engineering Sciences, said she was expecting the unexpected as to who would move on to Nationals this year, whereas she could pretty much predict who it would be in previous years. She was really rooting for Raymond Park Middle School, a school outside of Indianapolis, which has made huge strides in the last couple of years.
“This is a team who’s walking in without nearly the resources of, say, Carmel, and yet they could win,” she said. “Their coach loves his students so much.”
Along with WWMS in first and Thomas Jefferson in second, Stanley Clark Middle School out of South Bend took third place, while Carmel, Northridge and Munster High Schools placed first, second and third in the C Division. Carmel advanced to Nationals.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
