Photos courtesy of Dr. Victoria Raymond
The Science Olympiad team brought home first place wins in the regional competition for both varsity and junior varsity teams March 18 at Campbell University. The team will now move to the next stage and compete April 22 on the NC State campus.
At Science Olympiad competitions, there are 23 different events going on simultaneously. These events cover multiple subjects. With 41 students on the team, Northwood came out on top.
Junior Chris Drake joined Science Olympiad his sophomore year and has been working on his events since August. Drake enjoyed his experience competing in the categories of astronomy, helicopters and remote sensing.
“For helicopters, you stand in line and fly your helicopter for as long as possible,” Drake said. “We started in August, so it took from August till now.”
Senior Timothy Willard has been competing on the team for four years. He likes Science Olympiad simply for the competition; he loves the feeling of winning.
“I joined Science Olympiad my freshman year actually, so I have been doing it for a while now, and I really like it,” Willard said. “I like the competition. It’s always nice to win.”
The team’s coach, science teacher Dr. Victoria Raymond, took pride in the win and hopes to do more for the team in the years to come. The team got redistricted to a new district to ensure that the team was competing against schools that are similar to Northwood.
“As soon as we got redistricted in more of a district that has more similar schools, we just blew the top out of it,” Raymond said.
Raymond has been the coach of the team for six years. She says she loves working with students after school and taking advantage of Plus One, allowing the groups to get together and work on their latest event. Her favorite part of Science Olympiad is the competition.
“Hearing the metals clack against each other on the students’ necks makes me and the team feel accomplished on the bus ride back,” Raymond said.
Raymond feels very confident about bringing her varsity team to states next month and competing with some higher level schools.
“When we bring home the bacon like this one, what’s not to love?” Raymond said. “It’s the sport of science.”
– By Hailey Neal
