Story and Photos By Crystal Hayduk
Nineteen Beach Middle School Science Olympiad team members traveled with several coaches by school bus in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14, through snow and penetrating cold, to the Hudson Invitational to participate in their first meet of the season.
Early alarms and poor weather conditions did not dull the enthusiasm of the students, who had been preparing since November for the competition against 27 other teams.
Team members faced several challenges throughout the long day, including adjusting to changes in the bottle rocket schedule. With weather forecasts predicting increasing wind speeds throughout the afternoon, which would combine with already frigid temperatures to result in biting sub-zero wind chills, event supervisors made the decision to move the afternoon launch time to early in the day.
The time change resulted in students scrambling to find an alternate for the bottle rocket team since one of the original team members was scheduled for another event at the same time. Scoring was also adjusted to compensate for the wind.
At the end of the day, six of Beach Middle School’s 23 event teams came away with recognition during the final awards ceremony, earning scores in the top six places in the following subjects: Crave the Wave, Fossils, Picture This, Road Scholar, Solar System, and Write It/Do It.
Overall, Chelsea ranked 11th of 28 teams, an outcome that pleased head coach Sheryl Dewyer.
“Last year, we came in ninth out of 22 teams, so relatively, we did better this year,” she said. “Eleventh is really decent.”
“That was some ridiculously tough competition from teams we had never met, but we … beat almost all the teams we had ever competed against in the past,” she wrote on the team’s Facebook page.
When Dewyer shared the detailed results with the team at their practice on Feb. 17, she told the students that she expects an even better showing at the Adrian Regional competition on March 21, in which only eight teams participate.
“This is the time to buckle down and work harder than ever,” said Dewyer.
She tempered her remarks by reminding the students that it is most important to learn new things while still having a good time and competing fairly.
“But I know you guys are capable (of going to the state meet),” she said. “We’re so close, I can taste it.”
