FORT LORAMIE — There was a first at Fort Loramie High School recently. They had their first Science Olympiad (SO) team qualify for the state competition, ever.
When they competed at the Piqua Regional competition on March 12, they finished 4th overall, edging out Lehman Catholic High School by four points to qualify for state on April 9 at The Ohio State University in Columbus.
In Science Olympiad there are 23 events that the team competes in, for most events two students from the team compete. Some events require students to build devices before competition and then compete with them at the competition; such as building a robot arm to move ping pong balls, pencils, Legos, and dice; building a rubber band powered air plane to maintain a long flight, creating an efficient bridge with low mass to hold a high load; building an electric vehicle to travel quickly eight meters and then stop as close as possible to a determined point, and building an air trajectory device to launch a ping pong ball at a target.
Other events require students to study and prepare for a written or lab test; topics include anatomy and physiology, astronomy, cell biology, chemistry lab, disease detectives, dynamic planet, forensics, etc.
Lastly, there are events that require students to develop something on the spot; such as game on in which students create a computer game based on a given topic.
“There’s something that each students thrives in – there’s a spot for everyone. The students worked really hard on builds and studying. For some events they can take in one, or a few, pages of information on cheat sheets to help them with the test. Students were continually updating and bettering their sheets,” Science Olympiad Coach Abby Lightle, said. “We would have ‘work days’ on Saturdays and students would come to school for two, three, four hours or more to work on events. It’s really impressive to see the time students put in to their events this year, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
The team this year is led by seniors Riley Hausfeld, Noel Mescher, Alyson Poeppelman, Brooke Ruhenkamp, Nick Ruhenkamp, Jesse Stephens, and Rachel Schmitmeyer; three juniors Tom Ballas, Nick Pleiman, and Luke Stager; four sophomores, Nate Hausfeld, Jay Kacin, Collin Luthman, and Austin Meyer; and freshman Joe Ballas, Mitchell Berning, and Jake Rethman.
“All of the students helped the team; each member did their part and contributed to our success. Our school has had a lot of success in sports lately, but this shows that our students aren’t just athletic – we can compete academically too,” Lightle said.
She said, in Science Olympiad there are no divisions, every high school team is competing against other high school teams despite the size of your district. The fact that we qualified while competing against much larger schools really says something about our students.
Prior to the Piqua Regional, the team competed at four invitational tournaments in preparation. They brought home medals from three of the four invitational tournaments.
At Regionals, Fort Loramie brought home nine medals:
• Tom Ballas and Luke Stager placed first in Anatomy & Physiology;
• Jay Kacin and Nate Hausfeld third in electric vehicle;
• Rachel Schmitmeyer, Noel Mescher, and Luke Stager third in experimental design;
• Nick Ruhenkamp and Brooke Ruhenkamp placed fifth in forensics;
• Rachel Schmitmeyer and Noel Mescher earned fifth in geologic mapping;
• Tom Ballas and Collin Luthman placed third in hydrogeology;
• Nick Ruhenkamp, Tom Ballas, and Joe Ballas placed third in protein modeling;
• Riley Hausfeld and Nick Pleiman earned fourth in robot arm;
• Rachel Schmitmeyer and Noel Mescher placed fifth in write it do it.
“The day of Regional competition we had lots of things go wrong. We had issues with our bridge; we were missing some goggles; and the robot stopped working two hours before we ran that event. The students never gave up, they worked on the robot for two hours, there was some frustration – but they never quit,” Lightle said. “We got the robot working again about 10 minutes before competition. The robot fiasco of 2016 is one that I will not soon forget, mainly because I was so proud of the students for not giving up on it. The school and community have offered a lot of support and we’re going to do all we can to make the state experience great and something the students will remember for a long time.”
She said, Science Olympiad can be expensive, from the cost of busing, to supplies, to registration fees it adds up quick. Select Arc has helped out to sponsor the team the past few years.
“SO is such a good experience. Not only have I met some people I would have never interacted with before, but I have also experienced multiple aspects of science that have shown me so much about the world. My favorite memory from SO is going to WSU and experiencing the actual dead bodies,” Senior Nick Ruhenkamp said.
“I joined Science Olympiad in the 7th grade because at the time, I wanted to be involved in as many school activities as possible. Little did I know it then, but it would become one of my favorite experiences throughout my years in high school. Science Olympiad has helped me grow in ways I never thought I would,” Senior Noel Mescher said. “Some people think we’re crazy to spend so much time studying for tests, or building different machines, but I love it. Competing each weekend with my team is a huge reward in itself, and placing at competitions is just the icing on the cake. I have made so many memories throughout my time in Science Olympiad, many of them inside jokes from years ago which we still reference to. I am beyond blessed that I have much to show from my time in Science Olympiad. Not only do I have medals and ribbons, but I also have knowledge that was not there before. Our team has continued to grow stronger over the years and I still can hardly believe we are going to state! It is truly a great way to end my six-year Science Olympiad career. None of this would have been possible without our amazing coach, Miss Lightle. She pushes us constantly to do our best and it definitely pays off. I don’t think we’d be where we are today without her.”
“I don’t know many teenagers that are willing to meet at school at 5 a.m. on a Saturday to travel to a competition and not return home until around 7 p.m., but they do in Science Olympiad and I’m really proud of them for that,” Lightle said.
Bottom Row (left to right): Jake Rethman, Collin Luthman, Joe Ballas, Tom Ballas, Austin Meyer, Mitchell Berning, Nate Hausfeld
Not Pictured: Luke Stager and Alyson Poeppelman
