Science Olympiad brings 400 youngsters to campus

KALAMAZOO--More than 400 middle and high school students from a five-county area will flock to Western Michigan University this month for the Region 10 Science Olympiad competition.

The competition will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, March 17, in various campus locations, culminating in an awards ceremony from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Bernhard Center Ballroom. Competitive events will take place in Wood Hall, Rood Hall, the Chemistry Building, Dalton Center, Bernhard Center and the Student Recreation Center. About 150 WMU students, faculty and staff volunteers will be involved in some aspect of the Olympiad.

Forty-five different events in the competition are designed to test competitors' knowledge of the physical, applied and health science areas. Individuals and teams will compete in events such as: flight; tower building for efficiency; classical biology, physics and chemistry; technical writing; remote sensing and others.

The Science Olympiad is a national, nonprofit organization designed to promote scientific literacy among all students, a goal shared by education, business, industry and government. The Region 10 tournament directors are Marty Buehler of Hastings Area Schools and Scot Conant, student outreach and recruitment coordinator for WMU's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Contact Scot Conant at @email or (269) 276-3272 for more information.

Visit michiganso.org to learn more about Science Olympiad in Michigan.