The Central Arkansas Regional Science Olympics welcomed students from 10 area and regional schools Thursday morning to the Arkansas River Educational Service Cooperative at Pine Bluff.
Now in its second year, the event challenges students to immerse themselves in real-life applications of scientific principles through team and individual competition.
“We started out a couple of years ago with a science fair and had excellent turnout,” said Science Olympics chairperson Alan Braden. “Glenda Jackson [science specialist at the Cooperative] proposed holding a Science Olympics after the success of the science fair.”
Braden explained that each school could bring up to 15 students from the 4th through the 6th grades, with the students arranged into a maximum of three teams with no more than five students per team.
Braden, who is also a science teacher at East End Intermediate School in the Sheridan School District, brought his own group of kids.
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“We started getting ready about a month ago,” Braden said. “We practiced a couple of times a week for an hour after school.”
Each student on a team was responsible for competing in one of five science-themed events, including the Gummi Bear Long Jump, the Pine Wood Derby, A Walk Through the Heart, Archimedes Boat and the Paper Straw Javelin Throw.
Participation yields benefits
Jackson said that participation in the Science Olympics provides a multi-faceted payoff for students.
“First, this shows them that science is fun,” Jackson said. “It stimulates their minds to be creative and innovative. In the Archimedes Boat event, students have to design their boats on the spot and test them now and through this they are learning about Archimedes’ principle of buoyancy.”
“Participation in the Science Olympics also teaches them leadership skills,” Jackson said. “They are getting up in front of others at an early age. Believe it or not they also love the competition.”
Jackson said that plans for next year include the addition of a robotics component.
“We will have engineering projects for the students so that they will have the opportunity to follow a plan and create something,” Jackson said. “These kids can do it, they just have to be given the materials they need to learn and to create.”
Jackson said that another addition to next year’s lineup will be Minibrick Derby Cars to replace the wooden cars that are currently being used in the Pine Wood Derby event.
“We will furnish the schools these kits so that they will be able to do more with the design of their cars,” Jackson said.
Jackson said that a steering committee made up of representatives from all school districts in the area is responsible for organizing the Science Olympics every year.
“We do have representation from all of the school districts on the committee but all of them do not participate in this event,” Jackson said. “By adding the engineering aspect to the competition we hope to get the other districts involved.”
Beth Cook, science teacher at Coleman Intermediate School in the Watson Chapel School District, was responsible for supervising the Pine Wood Derby.
“We are teaching the kids about aerodynamics, velocity and weight,” Cook said. “They learn that the speed of their car is heavily influenced by the addition or subtraction of weight as well as where that weight is placed on the car.”
“The kicker is where the weight goes,” Cook said. “People sometimes drill out sections of the car, add washers to it, melt lead into holes in it or add fishing weights to it.”
Cook said the arrival of the minibrick derby cars will add more of a challenge to the creation of each car.
“They will come with the wheels and a flat body and the students will build everything else,” Cook said.
Student reaction
Altheimer-Martin Elementary fifth grader Ladayja Walker enjoyed her time at the Science Olympics.
“Because you can jump on the heart,” Walker said in reference to the walk through the heart event, where students were required to walk along a path laid out on a large mat that depicted a heart and demonstrate their understanding of the direction that blood flows through the organ’s chambers.
“The Arkansas State Frameworks require that sixth graders learn about the heart,” Braden said in explaining why the heart walk was part of the Science Olympics.
“We had to know the path that blood travels,” said Sheridan Middle School sixth grader Brandon Buck, who also participated in the heart event.
Fellow Sheridan sixth grader Samantha Stanford learned a valuable lesson in her Pine Wood Derby competition.
“I learned that I need weights on it,” Stanford said. “Last year I had weights on it and I came in first. I didn’t have weights this year.”
Martin fifth grader Royal Haynes agreed that weights would have helped his Pine Wood car.
“I learned that if I want to win I probably need to put weights on it,” Haynes said. “This is my first year in the event.”
The rest of the Martin team of fifth graders and their events included Kevon Kimble in the javelin throw, Sydney Maxwell in the Archimedes Boat and Derrion Thorn in the Gummi Bear Long Jump.