Grayslake Schools to Compete in Saturday's Science Olympiad at CLC

About 700 middle and high school students, including those from Grayslake Central and North high schools, Grayslake Middle School, Frederick School, Park School and St. Gilbert Catholic School, will demonstrate their creativity and science skills at the 2013 Grayslake Regional Science Olympiad at the College of Lake County on Saturday, March 9.

With event titles such as "Disease Detectives," "Designer Genes," "Rotor Egg Drop" and "Mission Possible," the events allow students to do cool science experiments and participate in heated competitions.

The Oympiad runs from 8 a.m. to 2:50 p.m., Saturday with an awards ceremony at 4:30 p.m. The competitions will be held at locations throughout the CLC Grayslake campus at 19351 W. Washington St.

Some of the most popular and spectator-friendly events involve robots, boomilever, balsa helicopter and elastic launch glider. Visitors are invited to watch these competitions in the CLC Physical Education Center (Building 7).

CLC faculty members will be involved in the competition as event supervisors, using their expertise in areas such as biology, chemistry lab, physics and geography.

The competition

Other high school participants include Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Cary Grove, Crystal Lake Central, Crystal Lake South, Huntley, East Leyden, St. Ignatius College Prep, Lake Forest and Stevenson.

Other participating middle schools include Antioch Upper Grade, Bernotas, Daniel Wright, Hannah Middle School, Hawthorn Middle School South, Lundahl, North Park Elementary, Glencoe Central and North Shore Country Day School.

The top six middle school teams and the top four high school teams advance to the state competition at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign on April 20. Nationals will be held May 17-18 at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

2012 Regionals

Last year, Frederick students took home individual medals in 11 of the 26 events, and First Place overall in Class A, a first for the school.

Grayslake Middle School also earned 28 medals in 23 events between its varsity and junior varsity teams last year. As a result, GMS earned a bid to state and competed in the nationally competitive AA division, placing 11th.

Last year, 21 seventh and eighth-graders from St. Gilbert participated in regionals.

Jack McKernan earned the William Gonas Award for Best Paper and Jack Carvill earned a special award from the Optical Society for his project on optics. In addition, Nathan Timmins earned the Best in Category in Electronics for his project on transmitters, Arun Jayaraman earned a Best in Category in Environmental Science for his project on wood stains, and Jack Carvill earned a Best in Category in Physics for his project on optics.

St. Gilbert placed 8th in the regional competition, which earned the school a bid to the state tournament for the second time. At the state competition, the students earned medals in six events.

GNHS students also won medals at last year's regionals. Aaron Pierce and Derek Pierce placed first in the Towers event. Chris Krajewski and Carissa Shurboff placed second in the Fermi Questions event. Carissa Shurboff and Derek Pierce placed fourth in the Gravity Vehicle event. Chris Krajewski and Mariah Shurboff placed fifth in the Robot Arm event.

For information on the competition, visit http://www.illinoisolympiad.org. Regional directors are Ron Keller and Ursula Ahern.

Information provided by the College of Lake County and the Illinois Science Olympiad.

Related:

Frederick School Wins State Science Competition

D46 Education Foundation Awards Seven Scholarships to Science Olympiads

How did your school do last year?