Schools

Lisle Junior High School Science Olympiad Take State Title

LJHS competed against top teams across the state, and came out on top (with several individual awards to boot).

submitted by Anne Blaeske

On April 16,  Lisle Junior High School’s Varsity Science Olympiad team, coached by Mrs. Natalie Keigher and Mrs. Monica Blatchley, took Division A First Place at the Illinois State Science Olympiad Competition held at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Students competed against the top teams from across the state.  In addition to their first place win, the team took an impressive total of eleven medals in individual events.

First place medals went to: Harsha Koritala and Andrew Trzeciak in Shock Value and Mary Sullivan, Sarah Mogensen and Billy Blystone in Experimental Design4dac79f98436.

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Second place medals went to Kati Young and Lori Taylor in Disease Detectives, Owen Andrews and Harsha Koritala in Fossils, and Aditi Jha and Sarah Mogensen in Anatomy.

Third place medals went to Aditi Jha and Billy Blystone in Towers, Sarah Mogensen and Billy Blystone in Solar System, Kallin Khan and Kati Young in Optics Harsha Koritala and Stefan Blaeske in Road Scholar, and Stefan Blaeske and 9th grader Andrew Trzeciak in Storm the Castle.

A fourth place medal went to Mathew Sebastian and Kati Young for Compute This.

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Started in 1985, the Science Olympiad program is a non-profit entity designed to excite 6-12th grade students about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is done through a series of 23 events during the one-day competition, which include building events, lab events, station events, and written tests. In building events, such as Storm the Castle (Catapults) and Battery Buggy, students design and build their own devices and bring them to compete against other teams.  With lab events, such as Science Crime Busters and Experimental Design students are given equipment and are required to complete experiment, report results and answer a question. The station events have students rotate through various stations identifying specific samples in Station Events, such as Fossils and Anatomy. The last type of event is the written test, where students answer test questions on such subjects as Astronomy and Dynamic Planet.

The team won their fifth consecutive state bid with a 7th place finish at the Plank Middle School (Oswego) Regional Competition on March 5, 2011  where they competed against 15 other teams and medaled in five individual events.

Lisle Junior High School began its Division B team in the 2006 under the direction of science teacher Natalie Keigher with 25 students. This school year, we have more than 50 students participating.  The Division B team has won a bid to the Illinois State Science Olympiad Competition each year they have competed.


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