Middle School STEM Team Prepares for Science Olympiad

The Middle School STEM Team at Kent Place School is hard at work preparing to compete in the Science Olympiad regional tournament in January. 

Science Olympiad is a national, team-based competition that centers on STEM subjects, with more than 7,800 students competing each year. The event is designed to encourage interest and excellence in science and promote teamwork, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills. The Olympiad allows schools to travel with 18 students — 15 competitors and three alternates. 

“Because of the program’s popularity and the high interest in joining the team this year, we conducted an official tryout,” says Wendy Hall, Middle and Upper School science teacher and the team’s head coach. “During tryouts, the seventh- and eighth-graders were challenged with a content knowledge test on fossils, and they built toothpick bridges to hold the most weight.” 

This year’s Middle School team consists of Abby Cai ’29, Pearl Dawadi ’30, Sophia Ivy ’29, Eva Joglekar ’29, Gitanjali Kameswaran ’30, Aadya Kumar ’30, Olivia Lin ’29, Richa Malpani ’29, Ananya Mittal ’29, Eva Obalde ’29, Rhiya Parmar ’29, Rae Sharma ’29, Siya Sharma ’29, Riley Toste ’30, Isabella Urgilez ’29, Myra Wadhawan ’30, Serena Wang ’29, and Carolyn Weng ’29. Providing support during practice are Aditi Bharatwaj ’30, Saachi Chadha ’30, and Joy Williams ’29. Kim Mattappallili, Middle and Upper School computer science and engineering teacher, is assistant coach.

Practices leading up to the Olympiad emulate challenges that will appear at the regional tournament. Recently, students participated in the second-annual Lego Build-off, practicing skills such as problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration. Working as a team, students designed a variety of scenes using Legos and came up with original stories for them.

Preparing for the high school regional tournament is the student-led Upper School STEM team, composed of students in grades nine through 12. This year’s Upper School captains are seniors Dvita Bhattacharya, Morgan Reis, and Nia Gitau. 

Good luck to all!