Science Olympiad for Middle and High School Students Returns to NJIT for the 12th Consecutive Year
On Jan. 12, 2018, NJIT will make science competitive yet fun when it hosts the 2018 New Jersey Regional Science Olympiad (NJSO), part of a national science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) competition. The university will welcome to the event nearly 700 middle and high school students who possess both great interest in STEM fields and strong academic achievements. NJIT has hosted the regional gathering since 2007.
At the NJSO, 43 student teams from New Jersey will compete in more than 20 hands-on competitions called “events,” which test skills on a range of subjects from anatomy and physiology and ecology to optics and thermodynamics. The teams work on their projects in NJIT classrooms with coaching from their science teachers. NJIT professors and student volunteers, along with representatives from UPS, CH2M, Stryker, Havas Life, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Merck, will supervise some events.
Team registration and event impound will begin at 8:20 a.m., followed by event sessions from 9:30 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. and award presentations starting at 3:30 p.m. Judges will select six winning teams from both the middle and high school divisions. Each winning team will win a trophy and go on to compete in the statewide Science Olympiad; those winners will then progress to the national competition.
“The Science Olympiad brings together hundreds of students interested in STEM for a fun day of team competitions,” said Suzanne Berliner Heyman, director for program operations and outreach at the Center for Pre-College Programs, which coordinates the NJSO. “It also exposes the students to NJIT, a top-ranked national university, and its prominent professors, which we hope further spurs their interest in STEM.”
Some of the NJSO competitions include:
• Experimental Design: Teams are given a set of unknown objects to design, conduct, analyze and write up an experiment.
• Mystery Architecture: Teams are given materials such as paper cups, drinking straws, paper clips, string, tape, paper, thumbtacks and craft sticks to design and build a device like a tower, bridge or cantilever.
• Roller Coaster: Teams will design, build and test a roller coaster track to guide a vehicle using gravitational potential energy as its sole means of propulsion to travel as close as possible to a target time.
For a full list of contests, visit:
• http://njscienceolympiad.org/events/b/descriptions/ for middle school
• http://njscienceolympiad.org/events/c/descriptions/ for high school
Participating high schools by county:
Bergen: Bergen County Academies (Hackensack)
Essex: Golda Och Academy (West Orange), Livingston, Millburn, Montclair, North Star Academy
Washington Park (Newark)
Hudson: Rising Star Academy (Union City)
Mercer: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Monmouth: Biotechnology (Freehold), Ranney (Tinton Falls)
Morris: Dover, Mendham, Montville, Morris Hills, Parsippany
Passaic: Al-Ghazaly (Wayne), West Milford
Somerset: Hillsborough
Union: Union County Vocational-Technical (Scotch Plains), Westfield
Participating middle schools by county:
Bergen: Alpine, Eisenhower (Wyckoff), Haworth, Primoris Academy (Westwood), Tenakill
(Closter)
Essex: Glenfield (Montclair), Golda Och Academy (West Orange), Maria L. Varisco-Rogers
Charter (Newark), Renaissance at Rand (Montclair)
Hudson: Hoboken Dual Language Charter, Rising Star Academy (Union City)
Middlesex: Hammarskjold (East Brunswick)
Monmouth: Ranney (Tinton Falls)
Morris: Randolph, Robert R. Lazar (Montville)
Passaic: Al-Ghazaly (Wayne), Macopin (West Milford), Paterson Academy for the Gifted and
Talented, Walter T. Bergen (Bloomingdale)
Somerset: Montgomery Upper (Skillman)
Union: Roosevelt Intermediate (Westfield)
For more information, visit njscienceolympiad.org.
