Worland Science Olympians earn state titles

A veteran Science Olympiad team from Worland High School brought home several state championships from the event last weekend at Casper College.

This year's team was led by seven seniors, five of whom competed since their freshman year - Ira Croft, Noah Mitchell, Jackson Richard,  Ivan Thomas, Dawson Utterback - Cadyn Ramirez joined as a junior last year and Ellianna Baumstarck joined the team this year.

Junior Scottie Thomas has competed since he was a freshman. Sophomores Milo Grzybowski, Rosslyn Rutledge, and Xander Smart return from last year and were joined this year by fellow sophomores Elijah Goble and Alice Goodrich. This year's team included one freshman, Addison Seghetti.

The team captured the Spirit Award for the first time. The award is nominated by the event supervisors. The award is give to a team in each division that exemplifies the 'spirit' of the program.  The team members working together toward a common goal, demonstrating their excellence and contributing towards the team's achievement are qualities that we are seeking."

Criteria can include demonstrating personal excellence, exemplifying the concept of teamwork, having sportsman-like conduct, having a positive attitude, having a respect for the rules and fellow competitors, showing respect and appreciation for event supervisors and other officials."

Earning first place honors at the state competition were:

Jackson Richard and Scottie Thomas for their Air Trajectory device. Coach Karen Grzybowski explained that students had to build an air-powered, non-electrical device ahead of the event that could launch a ball at differently distanced targets. 

Noah Mitchell, Ira Croft, and Scottie Thomas for Experimental Design. Students need to design an experiment from an assigned topic given right at the time of the event. Then they conduct the experiment, analyze the results, and draw a conclusion. All of this was done within a 50-minute time frame, Grzybowski said.

Milo Grzybowski and Rosslyn Rutledge for their Scrambler vehicle. Grzybowski said that the students designed, built and tested a mechanical device that used energy from a falling mass to transport a raw egg along a track as quickly as possible and stop as close to the center of a barrier (wall) without breaking the egg. 

Taking second in their respective categories were:

Jackson Richard and Cadyn Ramirez for their Tower that wouldn't break, Grzybowski said. She added that students built a lightweight wooden tower meeting size requirements. The tower is scored on how light it is and how much weight it can hold up to 15.0 kg (33 pounds). Their tower did not break holding 15.0 kg, so just for fun they added all the sand available holding a total of about 21.4 kg (47 pounds).  The tower didn't show any signs of breaking, but the sand bucket started to strain.

Dawson Utterback and Xander Smart for Forestry. The students were tested on their general forestry knowledge and the trees found in the United States. 

Ira Croft and Scottie Thomas for Write It, Do It. One student wrote a description of an object and how to build it. The other student then attempted to build the object following the other student's written directions, Grzybowski said.

Grzybowski said she started this year's team up at the beginning of October 2023. 

"We met once every week or two on Tuesdays at lunch. Many of the students also came in during Warrior periods (study/work time) to work on their events. The rest of the work students did outside of school time," she said.