Members of St. Paul Academy and Summit School’s Science Alliance student club competed at the Science Bowl competition on Jan. 23, and in the Science Olympiad on Feb. 6 . The student club, led by presidents and captains Maya Smith and Navodhya Samarakoon, has been practicing for each of these competitions in the preceding weeks during Thursday X-periods as well as after school.

This year was the first year of competition in Science Bowl for many team members. “We went five and two at the beginning and then lost pretty quickly because it was all of our first time doing it,” sophomore Ben Konstan, a team member, said.

In terms of the structure of the event, Konstan said, “First is four different sections of teams, and you face everyone in that section. That is where we went five and two, and then the top teams advance. Once you start facing top teams it gets difficult.”

“Leading up to Science Bowl, we did practice events and that really helped us figure out how the whole thing works because we were all pretty new to it,” Team member and sophomore Adnan Askari said.

The Science Alliance members also took part in the Science Olympiad . “We have been preparing all year for Science Olympiad,” Konstan said. “[It] is different because you’ve got a bunch of different events instead of trivia contests,” he added. 

Team Captain Maya Smith said “There are a combination of building and test[ing] events,” in Science Olympiad.

“For the building events students prepare an entry before and then present it at the competition,” she said. “Most of the tests are sit-down tests though some include lab activites or interactive components,” she added.

With the SPA team placing fourth in their section, they were one of the top six teams and were thus qualified to move onto state. The team specifically placed in second in wind power and astronomy.

“We will be participating in the [state] competition in about a month,” Smith said.