CVHS Takes 7th at National Science Olympiad Tournament
Castro Valley High School’s Science Olympiad team, in its debut appearance at the Science Olympiad National Tournament, captured an impressive seventh place trophy. One of the nation’s most prestigious STEM competitions, Science Olympiad brings together 60 middle school and 60 high school teams advancing from their state-level championships, where only the 1st place State teams were able to advance to Nationals. Rigorous tests, lab, and build events led by experts cover 23 topics ranging from engineering and physics to epidemiology, astronomy, chemistry, and coding.
“Going to Nationals was the opportunity of a lifetime, and we hope to do it again next year,” said junior Jishnu Sanyal. Leading the way for the team were CVHS seniors Tony Mei and Elise Lo, who won gold medals and two $1000 scholarships with their balsa Bridge that supported 3000 times its own weight. In the It’s About Time event, Tomi Chen and Anna Dughi built a pendulum clock and took a written test to win first place and two $1000 scholarships. Also winning gold were Tomi Chen and Bryce Deng who demonstrated their math and estimation skills in the Fermi Questions event.
Overall, the 15 students won 9 medals and had 12 top-10 finishes in the 23 events. Rounding out the medals were bronze winners Tomi Chen and Maya Dughi in Detector Building, Villius Staraitis and Bryce Deng in Green Generation, Tomi Chen and Tony Mei in WiFi Lab. Fourth place medals went to Sean Chen and Bryce Deng in Flight and Jishnu Sanyal and Elliot Wallis in Dynamic Planet. Finally, Anna Dughi, Sean Chen, and Tomi Chen took home 6th place medals in Experimental Design.
“This team is spectacular and so incredibly supportive of one another,” Coach Garland Dughi said. “Most of them have been competing since sixth grade and you can see their hard work and great teamwork paying off.”
Attending the competition in Wichita, KS provided an opportunity for students to bond more deeply with each other over late night study sessions and games. A national competition also provides an opportunity to mingle with other students throughout the country. In fact, networking is so important that keynote speaker Steve Jacobs, Fourth Wizard of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, explicitly commanded the students to network with at least 12 others. The competition even hosted a raucous “swap meet” where students exchanged items representing their home states.
The students would like to thank the community for their support in financing their trip. “It meant a lot to know that Castro Valley was behind us,” said junior Tomi Chen.
For more information about Science Olympiad programs in Castro Valley, go to cvscience.us.