NCS to Co-Host Science Olympiad Feb. 7

This school year, over 30 Upper School students have been preparing to compete in NCS’s first-ever Science Olympiad. Two 15-person teams (with alternates) are taking part in two local invitational competitions in anticipation of regional, state, and possibly national competitions.

NCS made a very strong showing in its very Olympiad outing, the Fairfax invitational, which took place on Jan 10, 2015. The NCS teams competed against 40 teams from VA, PA, and MD, including several who have been national medal winners in the past. NCS girls won four medals in “Compound Machines,” “Geological Mapping,” “Mission Possible,” and “Write It, Do It.”

“It’s pretty unheard of to win medals in a tournament of this caliber the first time out,” said Mathematics Teacher Susan Karpatkin. “To win a medal you needed to be one of the top five. Our girls were great!” Karpatkin and STEM Coordinator/Engineering Teacher Nancy Ehrlich are acting as coaches for the teams; other faculty are also acting as mentors.

NCS is co-hosting the February 7, 2015 Olympiad invitational with Walter Johnson High School from Bethesda, MD; it will be held in its entirety at NCS.

Science Olympiad, one of the largest school science competitions, operates like an academic track meet with 23 events. Each year, a portion of the events are rotated to reflect the ever-changing nature of genetics, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, mechanical engineering, and technology. Like a sports team, the Olympiad team requires commitment and practice throughout the year. At the Feb. invitational, all of the NCS team members will have either three or four events.

“The response from our students has been really exceptional!” said Ehrlich. “It’s an opportunity for the girls to have hands-on practice in science and engineering, and to be on a team whose success is based on hard work, intellect, and problem-solving,” said Karpatkin. “All of the tests they take and work they do is done with a partner, which mirrors the way science happens in this country today.”

Science Olympiad is a club, not a class or a sport, so students must be self-motivated to study with their partner or by themselves. The club has two co-presidents, Ellen Kim ’16 and Natalie Nigro ’16. For every event there is also a student “event leader” who organizes materials, interfaces with the faculty mentor, and plans meetings. NCS is participating in the Olympiad’s Division C (high school) and so NCS’s teams are largely madeup of sophomores and juniors, with one senior and one freshman.

Students who took part in the Jan. 10, 2015 Olympiad invitational appear below: an asterick denotes a medal winner.

9th Grade
Alex Giannattasio
 
10th Grade
India Bhalla-Ladd
Anna Christou
Ally Dalaya
Rebecca Davis
Selin Everett
Gigi Grigorian*
Alexandra Hohenlohe
Elizabeth Kim *
Nikki Krisztinicz
Macallan Penberthy *
Murphy Shorb
Elizabeth Thoren *
Margaret Thoren *
Sophia Triantis
Michele Zhu *
 
11th Grade
Elizabeth Crowdus
Arianna DiGregorio
Natalie Hankey
Danielle Horne *
Hazel Horvath
Ellen Kim
Nat Nigro
Charlotte Saul
Eva Snaith
Dominique Turner
Abby Weymouth *
 

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    • Juniors work on a creating a compound lever to measure mass ratios as practice for the Olympiad.

    • Sophomores build a timing device, one of the challenges of the Science Olympiad.