Science Olympiad Grant

To the PTSA from teacher Mike Megargee, June 2, 2016:

 I am writing to thank you for the PTSA grant that I was awarded for the Science Olympiad program.  Without PTSA funds, all the expenses come right out of my pocket, so your kind support has allowed us to compete this year and plan for continued competition in the future.  I’ll refer to the attached photos to discuss our progress this year.

“Air trajectory plan”.  30 students were involved, meeting Tuesday afternoons in my room.  We emphasized the construction events rather than the test events.  There were some great, innovative designs, and some of them actually worked!  The students learned a great deal about the value of prototyping and testing devices rather than getting lost in ornate designs.  This ball launcher worked well, but was completed so late that there wasn’t enough time to fully calibrate it.

“Air trajectory” There is so much to be learned at the competitions: where to stand, what actions are considered violations, how to interact with the judges, how the events are actually scored.  Just being at the regional competition helped the students identify opportunities for greatly improving their devices’ performance.

“Bridge”. For example, this bridge would have scored much higher if the students had seen how much time it takes to load the bucket in a constrained space.  They ran out of time without their bridge ever failing. Next year’s group will go it with a much stronger understanding of potential pitfalls.

“Electric Vehicle (movie)”  We involved more freshmen this year, and it was a fantastic improvement.  Their energy and curiosity led us in directions that we otherwise might not have gone.  This was the highlight of the regional competition: two freshmen trying to make an electric vehicle go an assigned distance and automatically stop.  Their car was probably the most accurate, stopping right on the target.  These freshmen now have impressive STEM and leadership accomplishments to put on their resumes.

Even with a young, inexperienced group, we finished one place shy of continuing to States.  But we have a solid team of students returning next year with great ideas for improving on the construction events, and coordinators already developing approaches for competing successfully in the test events.

And the grant from the PTSA has made sure that we can compete another year.