The official Olympics may be a year away, but Springfield will be having its own Olympiad this month.
On Feb. 18, the College of Natural and Applied Sciences at MSU will host the Regional Science Olympiad.
Twenty-eight teams will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals and other awards, with the top teams going to the state competition.
The teams will be made up of middle and high school students from southwest Missouri.
“The Science Olympiad competition gives individuals in middle school and high school an opportunity to show their knowledge and skills in science and engineering,” Dr. Tamera Jahnke, dean of the college said.
The competition
The day will be jam-packed with fun, challenging activities in various science areas.
“Some events are pure knowledge tests, while others involve lab work or critical-thinking skills,” Jahnke said.
The official activity categories are:
- Life, personal and social science.
- Earth and space science.
- Physical science and chemistry.
- Technology and engineering.
- Inquiry and nature of science.
There is a wide range of goals for student participants:
- Demonstrate competency of devices they built.
- Reach a solution to a problem with a given variety of chemicals and…
