Wednesday, May 23, 2001
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Wednesday, May 23, 2001 |
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Booth clenches sixth consecutive win at National Science Olympiad For the sixth year in a row, the Science Olympiad team at Booth Middle School has brought home the gold by taking first place at the National Science Olympiad Competition. The win this year was especially a triumph for the team since most members were battling the flu virus the week of the Olympiad. Incredibly, the team placed almost 100 points ahead of second place Parrott Academy from North Carolina and third place Thomas Jefferson Middle School from Indiana. Two other Fayette schools also participated in the national contest. McIntosh High School ranked sixth, and Rising Starr Middle ranked 13th. The only other school from Georgia to make the national tournament, Columbus High School, placed 45th. Getting selected to participate in the national competition is no easy feat. First, teams must place in the top four at the regional level to advance to the state contest. In order to get to the national level, teams must place either first or second in state competition. Booth was the state's second place winner, which secured the school its 10th consecutive trip to national competition. Approximately 2,500 middle and high school students competed in the 2001 National Science Olympiad May 18-19 in Colorado. Booth's medal winners in team events were Kevin Bails and Bryan Odakura, first in rocks and minerals; Christine Hedge, Shirley Li and Whitney Baker, first in experimental design; and Steven Perry and Rahul Basu, second in astronomy. Steven Perry and Andrew Wedemeyer, second in the Wright stuff; Karen Ketsche and Michael Massengal, third in road scholar; Steve Piasta and Alyssa Anderson, fifth in orienteering; and Steve Piasta and Bryan Odakura, fifth in bottle rockets. Science Olympiad is an Olympic-style competition that was created in 1983 as an alternative to traditional science teaching methods, science fairs and single-discipline academic tournaments. Instead of memorization and textbooks, students engage in hands-on discovery of cross-curriculum theories and principles. Relying on teamwork, discipline, commitment, and determination, students experience achievement under real-world rigorous academic interscholastic individual and team events in biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, computer science, and engineering. Currently, the Science Olympiad involves participants from nearly all of the 50 states and more than 12,000 K-12 schools.
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