Elementary students attend Science Olympiad

WAYNE — Each year six students in fifth and sixth grade are selected to attend the Science Olympiad event at Wayne State College. Students are chosen based on their excitement and love for science, class participation in science class, and their individual science NWEA MAP assessment scores.

This year’s participants from sixth grade were Cody Bloomquist and Gaven Nipp. From fifth grade, Elle Brazel, Carlie Kleinschmit, Rogan Hoesing, and Matthew Schindler attended. All students enjoyed the day and interacted well together. They rated the day as a 9 out of 10!

The students were educated and entertained in six different sessions with an overall theme of “Energy Transfer.” They studied how wind turbines work and the different types of energy transformations that happen to provide us with electricity. From there, they programmed robotic cars and investigated how to make the cars more efficient and faster by changing the size of the wheels and pulleys. Other topics included energy transfers within food chains and how biodiversity in ecosystems can impact food chains. Students built roller coasters and investigated what makes roller coasters safe or unsafe. They learned about gravitational, kinetic, and potential energy transfers that happen in a roller coaster system. Lastly, the students visited the Planetarium. Here they learned about the energy that is released during a star’s life cycle from birth to supernova.

“It was a cool experience!” said Cody Bloomquist when asked about the day. Gaven Nipp said, “It was an awesome, cool, incredible experience!”

All students had a great time and are still talking with their peers about it today. Students are anxious to go back and are begging to take a field trip.