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Young Minds Compete At Science Olympics

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By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 17, 2008

TAMPA - Teetering at 75 centimeters tall and resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the stack of empty milk cartons tumbled to the floor, followed by dozens of voices crying "Awww!"

Now twice fallen, one carton too many had been placed on top by its engineers, Clark Elementary kindergartners Ashley Toso and Taylor Pfister.

With only moments before the clock ran out, the girls quickly rebuilt the tower a third time to win their heat in the skyscraper competition at the Hillsborough County School District's annual Science Olympics, held Saturday at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Before being handed blue ribbons and a fistful of pencils, the good friends smiled at each other and back at their parents in the audience.

"We wanted to win it together," Taylor said. "We practiced."

The girls were among 750 students representing 110 elementary schools that took part in the day's competitions for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. Hillsborough students have competed in the Science Olympics for more than 30 years.

Before making it to the countywide competition, students competed at school-level contests to determine their grade level representatives. In addition to the milk-carton-skyscrapers contest, other events included bubble blowing, paper airplane design, aqua foil boat testing, straw bridge building and marble roller coaster design.

Teachers volunteer their time to the event every year, said organizer Liz Honeycutt, the district's elementary science supervisor.

Besides strengthening students' interest in science, one of the goals of the event was to get students to use what they learned in a classroom and apply it to real world situations and improve their problem-solving skills.

"Thinking like a real scientist, that's what we try to get the kids to do," Honeycutt said. "Try things out, collect the data and then redo it."

Children worked in teams of two, applying concepts of speed, velocity, forces in motion, acceleration and gravity, said Kevin Moon, a fifth-grade math and science teacher at Forrest Hills Elementary.

"Teamwork is the No. 1 key," he said. "They have to come into these competitions with a plan."
The competition educated parents, too, Honeycutt said. They got to see their children make things on their own without any help.

"For parents, it's probably a great lesson for them in the independence of their children," she said. "There are definitely a lot of life lessons in this event."

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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