What do you get when you combine a love for science and a competitive spirit? Science Olympiad, of course.
Cardozo High School’s own Science Olympiad recently participated in the annual New York City South Regional at Grover Cleveland High School, members winning more than ten medals. At regionals they ranked seventh out of over 59 teams. It is due to their hard work and drive that Cardozo’s team will be going to the State Science Olympiad Tournament for the first time in 13 years.
Their captain, Eshaal Irfan, attributed their success to the strong team, whose dedication led them. Irfan joined Science Olympiad as a freshman and is currently undergoing her second year as the captain.
As for their adviser, Mr. Altopp, this has only been his first year in his position. He explained the atmosphere when the team realized they would be going to States, recounting, “…the bus erupted into raucous cheers, and they were screaming, and I felt really bad for the bus driver because, you know, she’s trying to keep her eyes on the road, and everyone’s jumping out of their seats.”
The team had left regionals early, driving back from Grover Cleveland High School before the official end of the awards ceremony. They had only discovered they would move onto States after receiving a phone call from a member’s friend, who was still at the ceremony.
Mr. Altopp stated how he, “…knew we had a really strong team but we didn’t take it for granted that we were gonna qualify for States so that’s why it’s a really big deal.” The several months of prep had paid off, as this year’s team is making Cardozo history.
Science Olympiad is composed of competitions at the regional, state, and national level. At states the team will face off with different schools that did the best during regional competitions.
On Feb. 1st, the team attended the annual NYC South Regional. Amongst them is Roddic Chen, a senior who competed alongside Irfan in Electric Vehicle. Electric Vehicle entails “…designing a car that goes a certain distance and stops at a certain point as fast as we can make it and we build it from scratch.”
This is only one of the 24 events members can compete in at regionals. Subject categories include physics, biology, chemistry, and engineering.
Irfan shared, “A misconception is that you need a lot of prior knowledge to be a part of an event, although I feel that that’s applicable to some of these events — like chemistry lab — you can get thrown into events you’ve never seen or heard of.” This allows members to expand their own knowledge across different subjects. During her sophomore year, Irfan experienced this first hand when participating in the forestry event, her first time dealing with this type of subject.
At competitions every event will have a person dedicated to it. Members typically compete in more than one event. To determine who will compete in which event, you look to the rankings of team members during regionals. This is to “…ensure that the people who did well at regionals are gonna be competing at states,” Irfan explained.
States will take place in Syracuse, NY, which is unfortunately a pricey trip. If you would like to help support the team pay for transportation, supplies, etc you can donate to their GoFundMe.
Science Olympiad is a great place for students who enjoy learning and science. Mr. Altopp’s description encapsulated this team perfectly, representing it as a place for, “students who have a curious mind or like to know things very deeply.”
If you are interested in joining, you can find them on Instagram and at next year’s club fair.
