Science Olympiad for Middle and High School Students Returns to NJIT for the 12th Consecutive Year

Written by: Julie Jacobs
Published: Wednesday, January 3, 2018
An electric vehicle travels toward its target at the 2017 event.
An electric vehicle travels toward its target at the 2017 event.
PRESS RELEASE
Contact Information: Media Relations, mediarelations@njit.edu or 973-642-7042

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.

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is the greatest producer of technological talent and knowledge in New Jersey and is a nexus of innovation — a physical and intellectual focal point for innovative ideas, actions, and people. NJIT is the only public university in New Jersey and one of only 54 universities nationally to receive a five-star rating in Money’s annual best colleges list. The New York Times college ranking tool rates NJIT No. 1 nationally among all public universities when you prioritize high alumni earnings, economic mobility, and academic profile. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal ranks NJIT No. 26 nationally for alumni salaries, No. 30 for upward mobility and No. 50 for value. NJIT also is among the top 2% of universities for alumni earnings, according to PayScale.com, and is ranked No. 23 nationally by The Princeton Review as a Best Value College, in addition to being rated among the top 50 public national universities and top 100 overall by U.S. News & World Report. NJIT also is the only polytechnic university that is an R1 (highest level) Carnegie Classification research university and is designated both an Asian-American and Hispanic serving institution.