ISU physics to host Science Olympiad on March 1

The Idaho State University Department of Physics will host a regional Science Olympiad on the ISU campus on March 1.

Sixth- through ninth-grade students from throughout eastern Idaho will represent their schools and communities and compete in teams in a variety of science competitions. Students will compete with remote-controlled robots, balloon-launched gliders, catapults, egg scramblers and several other fun science events.

Winning teams will receive award plaques and prizes courtesy of Subway, Jamba Juice, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Arctic Circle and Taco Time.  Winning teams will be encouraged to compete in the state competition at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa on April 5. The Idaho champion team will go on to compete in the National Science Olympiad at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., May 30-31.

The Science Olympiad is a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers.  

At least a dozen teams from Eagle Rock Junior High School, Franklin Middle School, Irving Middle School and Ririe Middle School will be competing, meeting in Room 140 of the ISU Physical Sciences Building and dispersing from there.

There is still room for more teams. Steve Shropshire, Ph.D., and Valeria Starovoitova, Ph.D., of the ISU Department of Physics, Charles Peterson, Ph.D., of the ISU Department of Biological Sciences and ISU students from the biology and physics departments will serve as judges, along with several scientists and engineers from the Idaho National Laboratory and AMI Semiconductor.

More information on the Science Olympiad program is available at www.soinc.org.

For more information on the ISU Science Olympiad, or how to register a team, contact Shropshire at shropshi@physics.isu.edu, or 282-2212.