The 2015 Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 Science Olympiad attracted 334 students – up by 40% in just two years – the biggest event in recent memory. It again featured more girls than boys competing. The extracurricular activity for students in grades 3-5 was held on Saturday morning, February 7 at Emerson Middle School.
Students competed in one of the five team competitions to solve challenges in science and engineering. Each challenge was co-sponsored by District 64 and one of the elementary school PTO/As. Volunteer parents worked as coaches for students organized into teams and coordinated the events, including: designing and testing egg drop devices, catapults, and paper airplanes; building free-standing skyscrapers made from straws and straight pins; and making accurate inferences about the physical properties of several mystery objects.
The 2015 winners are:
Aerodynamics
- 1st Place (Gold Medal) - Franklin/Washington School Team - (Gr. 5) Ethan Balduf (Franklin), Michael Hart (Franklin), Cole Barruffi (Washington)
- 2nd Place (Silver Medal) (TIE)- Field School Team - (Gr. 4) Danny Looney, Jason Urquhart; Carpenter School Team - (Gr. 5) Alexander Farahany, Sam Miller
- 3rd Place (Bronze Medal) - Franklin School Team - (Gr. 3) Ryan Faraji, Ryan Olijnyk
Mystery Box
- 1st Place (Gold Medal) - Field School Team - (Gr. 5) Nathan Munoz-Lo, Josh Brown
- 2nd Place (Silver Medal) - Field School Team - (Gr. 5) Athena Demeros, Laine Rutkowski
- 3rd Place (Bronze Medal) - Field School Team - (Gr. 5) Harrison Fogel, Kieran Doran
Rubber Band Catapult
- 1st Place (Gold Medal) - Franklin School Team - (Gr. 3) Michael Maslankiewiicz, Jack Van Roeyen
- 2nd Place (Silver Medal) (TIE) - Field School Team - (Gr. 5) Anna Hoag, Mia Penn; Field/Franklin School Team - (Gr. 5) Sam Blashill (Field), Vasil Ivakimov (Field), Nathan Brozell (Franklin)
- 3rd Place (Bronze Medal) (TIE) - Field School Team - (Gr. 4) Susan Enkhjargal, Anna Sagmeister; Franklin School Team - (Gr. 3) Soterios Koukios, Ivan Sudmalis, Sean Sullivan; Washington School Team - (Gr. 5) Zachary Hassman, Alex Spiegel
Structures
- 1st Place (Gold Medal) - Field School Team - (Gr. 5) Aisling Colleran, Sasha Jackson
- 2nd Place (Silver Medal) - Field School Team - (Gr. 4) Matthew Heffernan, Julia Beck
- 3rd Place (Bronze Medal) - Field School Team - (Gr. 5) Stacey Pontikes, Caitlin Wallace
Egg Drop
- 1st Place (Gold Medal) (TIE) - Washington School Team - (Gr. 5) Ian Kreger, Rian Zeman, Jake Snyder; Washington School Team - (Gr. 4) Callie Berthold, Amelia Prater
- 2nd Place (Silver Medal) - Washington School Team - (Gr. 3) Ava Bertsch, Madeline Parrino, Ella McCarthy
- 3rd Place (Bronze Medal) (TIE) - Field School Team - (Gr. 4) Grace Kelleher, Debi Sakoufakis, Eleni Sakoufakis; Field School Team - (Gr. 5) Audrey Paluch, Rachel Smith, Samantha Schafer
A gallery of photos from the 2015 Olympiad is available here.