By Emilie Bauer ebauer@journalandcourier.com March 26, 2006

Future Einsteins on display

1,000 students compete in Science Olympiad

(By Tom Leininger/Journal and Courier) Aakash Sharma, a junior at the La Lumiere School in LaPorte, prepares to launch his team's 8-gram plane Saturday during a practice session at the State Science Olympiad competition at Purdue University.

To learn more Science Olympiad is a national organization with competitions in several states to promote science at the middle school and high school level. National competition will be May 17 to 20 at Indiana University. For information on Science Olympiad, visit www.soinc.org.

When James Nolan was in high school, he joined his school's Science Olympiad team.

"I liked making things," said the Purdue University junior majoring in physics.

Now, as a volunteer at the Science Olympiad state finals held Saturday at Purdue, he enjoys watching the middle school and high school students compete.

His fellow volunteer, Purdue freshman math major William Young, likes watching the students approach the same problem from different angles.

"I like to look around and see who's the next Einstein," said Young.

Young had plenty of opportunity to see future scientists and engineers Saturday as 1,000 middle and high school students from around the state competed in 23 science and math events.

Challenges included Storm the Castle, requiring students to catapult objects toward a target on a cardboard castle, and Wright Stuff, which had students fighting to keep airplanes in the air that were powered solely by rubber bands.

No local teams advanced to the state finals, but this is the first year Purdue hosted this event, which began in 1993.

Purdue has hosted regional competitions.

The competitions, said Bill Walker, Purdue's College of Science K-12 Outreach director, give students extra motivation to excel in the fields of science, engineering, technology and math.

"It provides positive encouragement for them to display their math and science talents," said Walker.

The competition is one of the largest student outreach events for the College of Science.

Though the purpose of the competition isn't to recruit future Purdue students, computer science outreach coordinator and supervisor Mindy Hart said information on Purdue and its programs were available to students.

Hart said the competition, which requires several months of preparation from the students, is a good way to expose students to science subjects, like physics, that they might not encounter until later in high school or college.

"It's very hands-on," said Hart, "and they don't always recognize topics for what they are. But they create an interest in science."

Steve Slaven, team coach of Winamac Middle School, Winamac, said he has counted nearly 10 former team members who have gone on to study engineering in college and one former student who is in medical school.

"We have kids that are going out and they're doing science," said Slaven.

The program also gives students interested in science the chance to participate on a team where, in Slaven's words, "It's cool to be smart.

"My team can't eat before the awards," said Slaven. "It's that exciting to them."