24 Ann Arbor-area schools fill Pioneer High for 9th Science Olympiad

From left: Dicken elementary 3rd graders Simon Duncan, Jack Bajcz, Ben Egelhof and Jack Martin walk back with their water rocket after testing it during the Science Olympiad at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor.

Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

The parking lot at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor was packed and the cheers of parents filled the school’s gymnasium this morning.

But it wasn’t an athletic event that inspired more than 2,000 elementary school students and many of their parents to come to the building: It was the ninth Washtenaw County Science Olympiad, which has grown to include 24 schools from the county.

In the gymnasium, five Wines Elementary School third-graders were competing in the pentathlon, one of 16 events offered today.

Lucy Roberts chose to compete in the pentathlon because, “I like running,” she said. But first she had to answer the question ‘What does obese mean?’ “Very overweight,” Lucy correctly responded and then completed in one of the relay events.

“This is a great way for kids to experience science in a fun way and it teaches them aspects of science they might not know,” said Lucy’s mom, Arleen Song.

Parent Barbara Zimdars is the coach of Pattengill-Bryant Elementary Schools’s pentathlon team, which has spent many hours preparing for today’s competition by studying questions about health, fitness and nutrition.

“I like pentathlon because it’s thinking and running,” said Pattengil-Bryant third-grader Nixon Holley. “It’s better than just video games because you get to do stuff.”

Events at the Science Olympiad range from “A is for Anatomy,” where students identify parts and functions of the human body to building towers out of drinking straws.

Susan Beech, a third-grade teacher at Pattengil-Bryant, has been a board member for the Olympiad as well as a score keeper for the event and a coach at her school, where the Science Olympiad was first held in Washtenaw County.

“I’m blown away by what the Olympiad has become,” said Beech. “When the Olympiad started, there were only four to six schools involved. It takes us well beyond what we can do in the classroom and gets my students energized about science.”

Students who have participated in the Olympiad often come back to help coach and volunteer.

“I competed when I was young and it really got me interested in the different aspects of science,” said volunteer Shreya Menon, now a Clague Middle School student.

There were some outdoor events like the water rocket launch in which a 2-liter soda bottle has air pumped into it to pressurize it, and a chord is pulled to launch the makeshift rocket which is shot into the air, after which a parachute inflates so that it stays in the air as long as possible.

Third grade students from Dicken had the chance to learn about rocket physics when they built their rocket.

“We spent a lot of time working on this,” said student Jack Martin. “I like to compete.”

“I just like to have fun,” said teammate Jack Bajcz. “We call our rocket the ‘epic failure’ because it got scrunched.”

Dicken parent and coach John Janevic is one of 20 coaches from his school, which brought 79 students to the Olympiad, including his daughter, Sophia Janevic, a fifth-grader, who is in her fourth year of participating.

“She has done the rock hunting event all four years and loves this stuff, and now our summer vacations revolve around rocks,” said Janevic.

The biggest sponsor of the Science Olympiad is the Toyota Technical Center, which has offices in Ann Arbor and York Township. Bruce Amble, a chassis engineer at Toyota, says it’s a great start for getting kids interested in technological careers. Hideki Hada, general manager at the Toyota Technical Center, concurs.

“When I was a kid, I made a safety system for a car,” said Hada. “Now my kids are participating on Lawton’s (Elementary School) team. They’re learning by trial and error, and it’s not easy.”