Middle and High School Students Compete in Regional Science Olympiad at NJIT
Dozens of teams of middle and high school students came to New Jersey Institute of Technology last week for a regional round of the annual New Jersey Science Olympiad hands-on learning competition.
NJIT’s Center for Pre-College Programs, along with the university’s Newark College of Engineering, served as the event hosts for about 700 academically excited children. They competed in events spanning topics such as anatomy, ecology, engineering and technical writing.
Max Randall, an 8th-grader from Montclair’s Glenfield Middle School, said this was his third year participating in the Science Olympiad at NJIT. “I love being here. It’s super fun to explore the campus and do all of the events,” he said. Randall said his favorite event was building a glider plane, but that he learned the most for an event called Air Trajectory, which involved dropping a weight through a pressure chamber to launch a ping-pong ball. “I learned how at a higher height, the increments between the drops are longer,” he added.
Glenfield’s coach, Delia Moloy Furer, said she too found the entire day educational. This year was her 22nd guiding students. “This has been incredibly valuable to me. It certainly has expanded my knowledge base more than any other activity that I've participated in as an educator,” she stated.
The event’s success stories include Stephanie Nicolaescu. She is a first-year NJIT student and Albert Dorman Honors College member studying computer science. Nicoleascu participated in the event during her sophomore, junior and senior years at West Orange High School. This year, she joined the tradition of being an event participant to come back as an event volunteer.
Reflecting on her high school years, “I liked being a participant in Science Olympiad because it gave me an opportunity to do a bunch of things I couldn’t have done in the classroom,” such as cryptography and forensics, Nicolaescu said.
Volunteering now counts to her Honors College community service hours. “It’s really fun. I really enjoyed it,” she said. Her students in the optics competition used skills that they learned in geometry and physics classes to pass a written test. They then determined how to make a beam of light hit a target.
In addition to the competitions, students were treated to guest lectures by NJIT professors Ecevit Bilgili and Joshua Young, both of the chemical and materials engineering department.
“I’m just happy to see the schools here, children competing and having fun,” said CPCP’s Kerry Eberhardt, who co-directed the event with NCE’s Patrick Thornton.
Eberhardt along with Science Olympiad state director Jennifer Wirt said future events could include topics related to climate change and cybersecurity.
Wirt added that the event could always use more volunteers. NJIT students and faculty are welcome to apply.
