Eisenhower Science Olympiad takes regional title for fourth straight year

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — The Eisenhower Science Olympiad team on March 18 placed first overall at the regional tournament for the fourth year in a row.

Placing in the top three high school teams in the region and competing with high schools from Macomb and St. Clair counties, Eisenhower has qualified to attend the state tournament on April 22 at Michigan State University.

Susan Ogden, the head coach of the Eisenhower team, said she is very happy that they were able to achieve first place once again.

“I am thrilled that we have successfully defended the first-place title here in our own region, and I am looking forward to the students proving themselves again among the stiff competition at the state tournament,” she said in a press release.

Utica Community schools explained that Science Olympiad is like a track meet, in that each team member competes in several events but no one competes in all events. The competition topics stretch across all branches of science and reach a college level of difficulty. In most cases, students are paired up to compete in events.

Preparation consists of studying, designing, building and testing, depending on the topic. Utica Community Schools said that the most dedicated students put more than 100 hours into the team during the Science Olympiad season.

The team started this season with its most successful student recruitment ever, as it filled the primary team with 15 students and attracted another 10 students to the alternate team.

A couple of highlights occurred in February, when Eisenhower’s team attended two practice tournaments — one hosted by Plymouth-Canton Community Schools and another hosted by the University of Michigan. The U of M tournament drew competitors from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. Amid all those teams, Eisenhower won awards in the areas of Experimental Design, Fermi Questions and Trajectory.

John Ogden is a board member of Macomb Science Olympiad, the organization that ran the regional tournament at Macomb Community College in Warren.

“We serve dozens of middle and high school teams from across Macomb and St. Clair counties. Congratulations are also due to the Malow Junior High team who placed first in the middle school division,” he said via email.

There are eight teams that qualified for the state tournament this coming Saturday. In the high school division, the teams that qualified are Eisenhower, Stevenson High School and Dakota High School. In the middle school division, the qualifying teams are Malow, Romeo Middle School, Iroquois Middle School, Seneca Middle School and L’Anse Creuse Middle School-North.