[ad_1]
Provided by: Aishani Gargapati
Written by Hope Yang 2/13/24 10:15pm
For the first time, the Rice Science Olympiad Alumni Association has invited 14 middle school teams from the Houston area to the Rice University Science Olympiad Regional Tournament on February 3rd. Previously, only high school students could participate, but the team has decided to include junior high school teams in the second tournament. Aishani Gargapati, co-director of the association, said it was regional.
“Last year, we held our first regional tournament here at Rice… only high school teams participated,” said Galgapati, a Wyss senior. “This year, we wanted to be more of a resource and help the Houston community, so we brought in a Division B team. [which are] Junior high school team. ”
Galapati said the Rice Science Olympiad Alumni Association hosts an annual STEM competition on campus for students across Houston.
“Our organization aims to engage in STEM outreach within the Houston community,” Gargapati said. “Typically, each year we host an invitational like a contest or regional tournament, where student teams from all over Texas can compete in tournaments and advance to the state and national level.”
The team decided to introduce a Division B group because of the need for a regional tournament in which junior high school students would also participate.
“The Texas Science Olympiad director… contacted us a little before August and asked, ‘Is it possible to include middle school teams in regional tournaments?'” Gargapati said. Ta. “In fact, there was a very strong need for teams to compete in regional tournaments. [we thought] It may be difficult, but this would be great for the organization. ”
Galgapati said the team faced challenges in expanding the tournament due to limited resources, but also received help from several volunteers from other universities.
“Our campus is very small and we have limited teams and resources… although it can be very difficult to oversee both Division B and Division C on the same day. [the tournament] It worked because everyone was so open and accepting,” Gargapati said.
Harsha Magesh, a sixth-grader at Sprague Middle School who will be competing in the Science Olympiad, said she enjoyed competing and being able to be a part of the Rice campus.
“Liked [the tournament]” said Magesh. “However, my mother made me participate at first. It was fun just walking around the university and seeing what was going on… [I’d] Probably would do it again.it’s just [that] I have to study a lot. ”
Olympiad event supervisor Catherine Zhou said the middle school students were excited about the competition and performed well.
“It’s very interesting to see how young they are. I can’t really imagine. These tests are really difficult. They’re all written for the high school level,” said Zhou, a Will Rice freshman. “fact [the middle school teams are] It’s really cool that we can still compete and sometimes score better than our high school team. ”
Event supervisor Lillian He said she hopes the Olympics will help students learn science in a fun environment.
“My goal in volunteering is to be able to give students the same feeling I had when I was competing in the Science Olympiad,” said He, a junior at Martell College. “Science Olympiad is very different from just studying science in a classroom. I think it should be fun and educational. [I think it’s good] I would like to be able to hold such a tournament at Rice so that all the students can come away feeling a sense of accomplishment and feeling like they learned something new. ”
[ad_2]
Source link
