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Antonio became a villain.
The cunning robot’s handler, Chesterton High School senior Logan Snyder, announced the frustrating yet hilarious turn of events to his Science Olympiad teammates shortly after the event ended. In a perfect world, Antonio would have been able to complete the obstacle-filled maze on his way from point A to point B within the time allotted for the robot tour event, Logan said on Feb. 17 at Indiana University Northwest. I gave an explanation at the Science Olympiad regional competition held at my school.
But apparently he had other plans.
“He didn’t want to hear anything,” Logan said with a laugh. “There’s no question he didn’t like the surface he was on, but it’s also possible that the line of code wasn’t right. We need to do more testing for things we didn’t take into account.”
Tournament director Harold Ollivey said during score tally that 16 schools with 19 teams of 15 students competed in the IUN regional competition. This year, 34 events and 3 hands-on events were held to test the mettle of children.
Trial events do not count toward a team’s overall score, and it is typically the team’s alternates who compete in trial events, Olivey said. But their role is equally important. Because they will indicate to tournament organizers whether trial events (this year it was Botany, Engineer CAB, and Solar Power) can be added as categories.
IUN Professor Emeritus Ken Schoon said: “We need to ensure that events cater to different age groups.”
Schoon said he remembers the science fairs he attended as a child, where students competed against each other, at least at the individual school level. But in events leading up to the Science Olympiad and national competitions, he said it’s important for students to work together and, just as importantly, encourage each other.
Jamie Rees, a member of the Science Olympiad board and a teacher at Crown Point, took this sentiment a step further, saying schools are now recognizing academic teams more. She said that is very important because these are the children who will lead the world into the future.
“(Science Olympiad and other academic teams) need to be supported just as much as sports teams. Why can’t we raise these kids and not isolate them?” Lie said. “At Crown Point, we have fall and spring pep rallies, and now we’re starting to bring those teams to rallies and promote their accomplishments in morning presentations, which a lot of schools don’t do.”
Snyder, who will attend Purdue University School of Engineering in the fall, said participating in Science Olympiad for five years taught him that he loves designing things with computers. But it also gave him broader lessons about science itself.
“(Science) is never a perfect process. There’s always room for improvement,” he said.
Karla Junior High teammates Pari Patel, 13, and Krupa Patel, 12, were having a little more fun at their own event. In the program, called “Air Trajectory,” two girls were tasked with building an air chamber guided by a weight and launching a ball a defined distance.
The first target didn’t work, but the second, longer distance got me closer to where I needed to be. But they both agreed they didn’t really care about all that.
“We chose Air Trajectory because it involves filming in a school,” Krupa said.
For IUN Science Olympiad regional team results, log on to northwest.iu.edu/science-olympiad.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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