St. Thomas to host hundreds of young science scholars this weekend and next
Balloons will soar, planes will swoop, robots will ramble, castles will be crashed, energy-transfer machines will make energy-transfer sounds, and nearly 1,000 brains will be hard at work on two Saturdays in March at Minnesota Science Olympiads for middle school and high school students.
The High School Science Olympiad will be held Saturday, March 3, and the Middle School Science Olympiad will be held Saturday, March 10.
The University of St. Thomas again is hosting the 23rd annual competitions, which provide some of the state’s best young intellects the chance to have fun while putting scientific principles to work.
Events for both olympiads will be held in the Frey Science and Engineering Center, and McCarthy Gym, both located on south campus. The events are free and open to the public.
Both olympiads generally run from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. More information about both events, including the times and locations of the various competitions, is available on the Web. For the high school schedule go to https://www.minnesotaso.org/; for the middle school go to https://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/scienceolympiad/default.htm.
The individual and team events in the olympiads are balanced between the disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, computers, astronomy, engineering and technology, and are designed to encourage a wide cross-section of students to participate.
The 29 middle school and 31 high school teams earned a berth in the state finals by competing in regional events.
In recent years Delano and Kenwood Trail from Lakeville have been dominant in the state middle school olympiads.
Trying to unseat them this year will be teams from Ada-Borup in Ada; Bethlehem Academy in Faribault; Byron; Twin Cities Academy and Capitol Hill Magnet in St. Paul; Central in Eden Prairie; Century in Lakeville; Delano; Ellis; Hastings; Horizon in Moorhead; Lake in Woodbury; Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis; Minnetonka; Norman County West in Halstad; Northfield Middle School and Northfield School of Arts and Technology; Providence Academy in Plymouth; Randolph; Shakopee; Triton in West Concord; Willow Creek in Rochester; and Woodbury.
At the high school level, Mounds View High School is the three-year defending champion. Last year, St. Paul Academy was second, Apple Valley was third, St. Paul Central was fourth and Rochester Mayo was fifth.
All five will be back again, competing against teams from Blake and Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis; Moorhead; Minnetonka; Kasson-Mantorville in Kasson; Eastview in Apple Valley; Bemidji; North St. Paul; Fillmore Central in Harmony; Byron; Lakeville South and Lakeville North in Lakeville; Eagan; Osakis; Blaine; Bloomington Jefferson in Bloomington; Norman County West in Halstad; Mound Westonka in Mound; Orono; Rochester John Marshall and Rochester Century in Rochester; Randolph; Delano; Waseca; Wayzata in Plymouth; and Nicollet.
Sponsoring this year’s 23rd Science Olympiad are Flint Hills Resources, 3M and St. Thomas.