Today at 6:00 a.m., the RBHS Science Olympiad Green team and Gold team boarded a bus alongside the Hickman High School team to travel to Missouri S&T University in Rolla, Mo. to compete in the regional level. Members on both teams performed well, and the RBHS Green team went home with a second place win – the Green team placed in all of the events but four, and the Gold team placed less often but earned mainly 1st and 2nd places when team members did – behind only Hickman High School. Rolla High School came in at third place; all three teams will move onto the state competition.
Competitors traipsed across the S&T campus throughout the day to various halls and labs to compete in the myriad of events. Competition covered topics ranging from ecology to physics to crime-scene investigation. Each event lasted approximately 50 minutes, and students could only compete in a maximum of six events. On off periods, students stayed in their team’s home room or grabbed lunch from Rolla’s meal hall and chatted about the day, worked on homework or prepared for upcoming events. Coach Stephanie Harman and assistant coach Barry Still offered guidance and support to competitors throughout the day.
RBHS Science Olympiad will consolidate team members into one 15-person team to the state competition on April 6 at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where they plan to compete against high schools to place well both as a team and in individual events.
“I think we did great,” junior Joanna Zhang, Green team member, said. “I wasn’t all that surprised that Hickman beat us, sadly, so second was pretty fantastic.”
By Atreyo Ghosh
For more information about the events that today’s competitors performed in, please visit the Science Olympiad Division C Events page.

Photos by Kelsey Harper
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