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Nazareth's Science Olympiad Team Headed for State Competition

This is the first time Nazareth's Science Olympiad team has made it to the state level.

After successfully competing in the Central/Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Science Olympiad contest at Kutztown University on Wednesday,  Science Olympiad team earned a place at the state competition on April 29 at Juniata College.

This is the first time a Nazareth Science Olympiad team has ever qualified for states, according to Cecilia Szuba, a Science Olympiad coach and science teacher at NAMS.

“Now we have to plan for practice next week,” Szuba said, adding that more work is in store for her and the students, but it's worth it.

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Roxanne DeRaymond, whose son Nate DeRaymond competed in the Olympiad, explained that some schools have a class devoted to preparing students for the competition. At Nazareth, it is run like a club.

This year's middle school team is comprised of 11 students from 7th and 8th grade, and four high school freshmen, according to Szuba.

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Team members included: Nate DeRaymond, Victoria Steinberger, Sydney Lukus, Abi Vanover, Ariana Gee, Nate Bellito, Dan Shevalier, Madison Davis, Carolina Braga, Matthew Porter, Pallavi Garg, Mihikka Garg, Meaghan Kelly, and Kelly Sarkis.

The students competed in teams of two in 24 events. The events covered scientific areas ranging from mechanical engineering to biological sciences.

The Nazareth students won in multiple events including Disease Detectives, Microbe Mission, meteorology, fossils, Can’t Judge a Power, Storm the Castle, ornithology, Road Scholar, and Battery Buggy. Two awards were in first place, several in second and a few in third and fourth places.

Science Olympiad team also competed on Wednesday.

According to Tina Hirsch, a coach and science teacher at the high school, 14 students competed.

Six of the students won awards, including Kate Polles and Sinmi Opeyemi who placed second in the helicopter event; Opeyemi and Rachel Kosciusko took second in anatomy and physiology; and Mike Garrett and Brandon Talmadge placed second in the mousetrap vehicle event.

High school seniors Alex Calzolari and Alex Huynh didn’t place in the towers event, but they sure tried.

“We wanted to design a tower that wouldn’t break,” Calzolari said. “When you put your heart and soul into it, you don’t want it to crumble.”

Scoring in the Science Olympiad can be stringent, according to Roxanne DeRaymond. The students must follow specifications very closely, and teams can lose points or drop from tier one to tier two for the slightest infractions.

Congratulations to both teams!

Nazareth Area Middle School Students - Good luck in States!

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