This past weekend, Northwood’s varsity team, led by science teacher Dr. Victoria Raymond, found its way into states by placing third at regionals. Each year, Science Olympiad teams from all 13 regions of North Carolina gather to compete in the regional tournament where only the top four placing teams will qualify for states. In April, Northwood and the other top teams from each region will meet in Raleigh where they will all compete for the top two spots and a trip to nationals.
“We had a young team and I was delighted we did as well as we did,” Raymond said.
Raymond went onto explain that Northwood also has a JV team, which competes along side the varsity squad but is only scored against other JV teams. Being that Horton Middle School now has a Science Olympiad program, Raymond feels the preparedness of students has increased and that Northwood has a bright future
“My JV team rocked it, and a lot of those folks are going to be stepping onto varsity as soon as next year. I feel we’re well poised for future greatness,” Raymond said.
Competitions are run through a point-based system where each team of 18 people is responsible for 23 competitive events ranging from quizzes to building things to designing experiments.
“Personally, I like to do the quiz events better because you get to study before so you’re not put on the spot,” said senior captain Anna LaRocca-Massi, a four year participant in the program.
LaRocca-Massi went onto explain how Science Olympiad challenges expose you to sub-topics that may not be available in the classroom.
“My favorite event is probably either dynamic planner or astronomy,” LaRocca-Massi said. “You don’t get to really study them in school so it’s cool to learn about something new.”
Regarding progress within the program, LaRocca-Massi couldn’t be more pleased with the growth she’s watched
“I’ve really enjoyed seeing our team grow from freshman year where we didn’t have enough people for a varsity team. Now we have a JV team and a varsity team and it’s really wonderful watching something grow like that,” LaRocca-Massi said.
— John Dunning