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Chelsea High School Science Olympiad Team 2015 recap

Courtesy photo. Members of the Science Olympiad Team members.
Courtesy photo. Members of the Science Olympiad Team.

(Chelsea Update would like to thank Christine Forsch for the information in this story.)

They started meeting in September 2014, when the national rules of the 2015 Science Olympiad year were released.  Many students arrive for the first informational meeting, but only the daring and strong remain for the rest of the competition year.

Head Coach Christine Forsch is talking about an extracurricular group at Chelsea High School, which encourages the more intense study of the STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  The competition involves a team of up to 15 who study and build items in 23 different college level events. These events have strict rules and descriptions, which must be followed so as not to be disqualified. This kind of thinking is important in the science fields.  Most times each student gets to compete in 1-2 favorite events but frequently schedule conflicts require that they compete in a subject that is unknown to them.  Since this is teamwork, they willingly study for it.

This year’s competition was extraordinarily difficult.  Scheduling conflicts are usually handled frustratingly but gracefully.  The State Solo and Ensemble Proficiency Examination was occurring on the same day as the Regional Science Olympiad competition at Adrian College.  As it is in every year, usually half the team’s members also do music performance. Over half of this year’s team was participating in the State Solo/Ensemble Exam in Chelsea, so there was a lot of parent shuttling from, for example, an Air Trajectory test to a Flute Solo. Coach Forsch was so grateful to Rick Catherman and Jed Fritzmeier for working with her and the students in juggling their performance times so they could also compete in Science Olympiad.

The Regional Competition took place March 21 at Adrian College.  There were team members who did exceptionally well and Coach Forsch is excited for the next year with these students. 9th grader Marielle Lenehan and 10th grader Ayla Raye-Leonard got a First Place medal in Fossils.

Build events, which encourage those interested in the study of Engineering and Physics, usually take a lot of to build and test. Receiving Second Place medals in these time-intensive events were Leah Pifer and Kylie Saxton for their Mission Possible machine, Matt Proegler and Camden Dammeyer for their Air Trajectory and Matt Progeler and Juan Ruiz for their Wright Stuff airplane.  Third Place medals were won by Anna Argento and Ross Smyth for their Scrambler vehicle and Ross Smyth and Nora Dobos for testing in Geologic Mapping. Other team members were Shivani Rana, Hannes Schoerghuber, Meagan O’Hara and Kaia Newman.

One of the hardest things for a coach is when team members move on and graduate from Chelsea High School.  Forsch has been watching and working with Matthew Proegler for 7 years. He is a real “team player,” volunteering to do an event when needed and paying meticulous attention to the rules of his builds.  A deviation in measurement of even a centimeter can disqualify that event. The other seniors who have done Science Olympiad for a few years are Shivani, Juan and Hannes. Forsch thanks all the students for all their hard work.

The purchase of necessary event materials and a coaching education seminar would not have been possible without a generous grant from the Chelsea Education Foundation. They have been supportive of the Science Olympiad teams at Beach Middle School and Chelsea High School for years.  The Chelsea School District is supportive with transportation of the students to Invitationals and Regional events.

Coach Forsch also wants to thank the parents who helped individual teams with their events. This event coaching  is very important to the success of the individual events and the team. Thank you to David Proegler, Alan Argento, Dianne Dobos, Dan Pifer, Jennifer Dammeyer and Kerry Smyth, who kept the receipts/monies in order.

Chelsea School District students and parents who may have an interest and questions about Science Olympiad may contact Christine Forsch at 475-4273.

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