Budding young scientists from throughout the region participated in the 36th Annual Stanislaus County Regional Science Olympiad in early March. This year’s event was virtual due to pandemic restrictions as a result of COVID-19. All Northern California Regions (Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Bay Area, Santa Clara, Tulare, and Fresno) banded together to have all online testing take place simultaneously, utilizing the same volunteers for all regions. Each school competed only against teams within their region. More than 300 students from the Stanislaus region junior and senior high schools competed in the day-long event.
Oakdale Junior High was among other junior high/middle schools taking part, including: Blaker-Kinser, Hickman Charter, La Loma, Modesto Christian, Ustach, and Whitmore Charter. Oakdale secured fifth place in the overall competition.
This year’s Science Olympiad was sponsored by the Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) and Education Foundation of Stanislaus County.
The Regional Science Olympiad consists of individual and team events that encourage learning in biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, problem-solving, and technology. Some events require knowledge of scientific facts and concepts, while others rely on science processes, skills, or application. Some events require students to build devices before the competition, such as Sounds of Music. For this event, teams construct and tune one device prior to the tournament based on a two-octave 12-tone equal-tempered scale and complete a written test on the physics of sound and music concepts.
Additional awards were given to Oakdale Junior High in the following areas:
Circuit Lab: Fourth Place; Crime Busters: Fifth Place; Density Lab: Fifth Place; Digital Structures: Second Place; Disease Detectives: Fifth Place; Dynamic Planet: Fourth Place; Experiment & Data Design: Fourth Place; Food Science: Fourth Place; Fossils: Fifth Place; Game On: Fourth Place; Heredity: Fourth Place; Machines: Fifth Place; Ornithology: Fifth Place; Reach for the Stars: Fifth Place; Road Scholar: Fifth Place and Water Quality: Fifth Place.
