Science Olympiad to bring some 400 youngsters to campus

KALAMAZOO—More than 400 middle and high school students from Allegan, Barry, Branch, Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties will gather Saturday, March 16, at Western Michigan University for the Region 10 Science Olympiad competition.

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

Science Olympiad competition

There are 45 different events in the competition designed to test competitors' knowledge of 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 of WMU's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

To learn more about Science Olympiad in Michigan, go to michiganso.org.

For more information, contact Scot Conant at scot.conant@wmich.edu or (269) 276-3272.