The Clovis West Science Olympiad team is looking forward to the state competition after taking third-place in Fresno County.
Twenty eight teams representing various Fresno County schools took part in the Science Olympiad. The events challenged the students in different types of scientific categories. While some of the events test the students’ knowledge on a particular topic, other events require the participants to demonstrate or build products.
Clovis West students finished in the top-three in various categories.
Ecy King and Emily Berg took first-place in Disease Detectives, Todd Yu and Naasir Farooqi finished second in circuit lab and fermi questions, while Trevor Kubose and Jake Bringetto were second in sounds of music.
Ecy King and Katie Sloan finished second in water quality, while Mason Kinsey and Isak Knox took second-place in Astronomy.
The tournament includes junior high and high school divisions, with the top-four teams going to the NorCal Science Olympiad.
Lori Hurley, Biology teacher and Clovis West Science Olympiad head coach, said teams must be well-rounded in order to have success in the competition.
“You need students who are strong in life sciences, strong in physical sciences,” Hurley said. “If you’re only strong in two or three events, it’s not going to be enough to put you in the top to go to NorCal.”
Hurley said Clovis West has been competing in the Science Olympiad since 1993.
“It’s a tradition here where students are aware of it, they want to be a part of it,” Hurley said. “It’s competitive, but we also are a goofy family. The students have a lot of fun succeeding together.”
The students who enter their products for the tournament start building around November and continue until the spring.
“Some of them build it, tear it apart and redo it last minute,” Hurley said.
For the study events, Hurley said the students spend about two months studying for the competition.
The NorCal tournament will be held on April 6 at CSU Stanislaus.