K-12 Outreach Science Olympiad - Kraemer Invite Competition

On Saturday 1/27, ASCE board member Brian Phan assisted with the annual Science Olympiad Competition Invitational at Kraemer Middle School in Placentia. The invite was coined as the largest school runned invite in the nation where they hosted over 60 teams from all over southern california to compete. As a coach of Edgewood Middle School Science Olympiad team, Brian challenge and coaches his students to compete in multiple engineering based events.

Science Olympiad competitions are like academic track meets, consisting of a series of 23 team events in each division (Division B is middle school; Division C is high school). Each year, a portion of the events are rotated to reflect the ever-changing nature of genetics, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, mechanical engineering and technology. Each school-based team is allowed to bring 15 students who cross-train for a variety of events in their skill set, but some school clubs have more than 75 members, allowing for an apprentice and mentoring system.

At the competition, Brian was the lead event proctor for the "Battery Buggie". The event challenged students to build an electric powered vehicle that was able to be calibrated to move and stop at a certain distance. The vehicle must only be stopped without the use of any remotes, controls, or electrical devices. This added challenge encouraged the students to come with some very amazing devices to compete with. Overall, the students had an amazing competition day and learned from this experience.