Montgomery Science Olympiad team heads for nationals

School has won state championships nine years in a row.

By: Kara Fitzpatrick
   MONTGOMERY — When a charter bus pulls out of the high school parking lot later this month to transport 25 students to the Science Olympiad National Championships, it will boast a boatload of brainpower.
   The group "without a doubt" is made of Montgomery High School’s top science students, said Science Olympiad advisor Jim Pendleton.
   The Montgomery High School students will be on the road for 13 hours to reach the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to join 2,400 middle- and high-school students for the national championships May 20 to 21.
   The Montgomery team, one of two state champions — The Lawrenceville School being the other — will compete in 23 science-related events, such as anatomy, forensics, paleontology, chemistry and astronomy.
   Events are both "building" and "study," with students doing hands-on activities — building rubber band-powered airplanes or water bottle rockets — as well as taking academic tests.
   "Competition gets tougher every year, so it’s up to us to step it up," said Neil Kaushal, a senior who will be competing in events relating to fossils and epidemiology.
   But Montgomery has a longstanding record of excelling in the competition — placing first in the state championships for nine consecutive years.
   Neil, who plans to become a medical doctor, said participating in Science Olympiad is both beneficial and interesting because one has the opportunity to learn about a subject that might not necessarily be comprehensively covered in the classroom — like, well, fossils.
   "This is the only time I’d be studying fossils," said Neil.
   His teammates agreed that Science Olympiad opens the doors to many unexplored sectors. Aside from the fun of competition, "it brings a lot of people together," said Diana Jiang, a junior who will be competing in events related to aeronautics and tower-building. Plus, she said, "you explore other topics" than what’s taught in school.
   Although some students are biased toward competing in simply building events or study events, the students are willing — and capable — of competing in a mix of the two. That’s just what makes this particular team special.
   "We have a lot of kids who will pretty much do whatever (event) we ask them to do, even if it’s something they don’t want to do," Mr. Pendleton said. "That is the type of thing that is important for the success of the overall team."
   Some may wonder what it is about Science Olympiad that keeps the students intrigued long past the 2:30 p.m. bell. Some of his students have been building their projects since the rules were released by the national organization in the summer, said Mr. Pendleton, an Advanced Placement biology teacher.
   And, he said, the students spend extensive time outside the classroom preparing for competitions. "They spend hours, which is really amazing when you consider the academic load these kids take," he said.
   But, for Divya Yerramilli, the extracurricular activity is gratifying.
   "It’s fun," said Divya, a junior who will be competing in the areas of cell biology, fossils and chemical identification. "It’s not like we’re punishing ourselves when we do it, or else we wouldn’t do it."
   Aside from being fun, it can be extremely fruitful. First-place event winners in the upcoming championship will receive a full scholarship to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mr. Pendleton said he is pulling for someone on the Montgomery team to receive that honor.
   Last year, when the Montgomery team competed in the national championship that was held at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, they placed 13th. This year, they hope to finish in the top 10.
   When asked if they could accomplish that goal, Stephany Tzeng replied "definitely."
   Stephany, who will be attending Yale University in the fall to study biomedical engineering, is competing in the bottle rocket event as well as others relating to the science of genes, computers and experimental design.
   Mr. Pendleton said the venue for displaying science knowledge at a Science Olympiad competition is one at which students feel comfortable.
   "They get to be around other really smart kids — they are competing with their peers, but are not worried about standing out," he said.
   Mr. Pendleton said most of the students on the team are modest about their abilities. "They don’t like to have people pointing out how smart they are, but they like to shine in competition."
   The theme for this year’s championship is Albert Einstein, in part because 2005 commemorates the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s "miracle year" when he published papers that revolutionized science. Joe Lykken, a particle physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, will deliver the keynote speech at the opening ceremony.