After winning its sixth consecutive Kansas State championship, Pleasant Ridge Middle’s Science Olympiad team is set to attend nationals.
Science Olympiad, a STEM-based nonprofit organization, will host its 40th annual national tournament at Michigan State University from May 24-25.
Co-head coaches Prasanthi Dandamudi and David Spieker said this year’s championship team at Pleasant Ridge Middle is significantly younger and less experienced than teams in years prior; however, their high-achieving mentality remains strong.
“We had a pretty big class of kids that moved on to high school last year,” Dandamudi said. “So that makes it so much harder. But based on what I’ve heard, Science Olympiad is not very stressful. The kids really enjoy this.”
Students study upwards of 10 hours a week
At the national championship, students from across the country will be tested on topics from every field of science, and are expected to assemble complex devices that meet a new specification. Each team is required to participate in 23 total events, and they are categorized into one of three divisions regarding if they compete at the elementary, middle or high school level.
Dandamudi said there is a wide range of study techniques and levels of dedication among the students. Some, who are fairly new to Science Olympiad, will utilize the advice from parent volunteers and spend 10 hours or less studying a week. However, for other students, this could average between 30 and 40 hours of studying per week.
There is no set textbook for study events, so students are left to their own devices. Coaches will often advise them to read from a website with a URL ending in .edu or .org; however, they are free to use any resource.
“It’s a huge commitment for sure,” Dandamudi said. “Nothing like what they learn at school. There’s kids studying materials at a college level. So it requires a lot of dedication, a lot of time that they put in throughout the year starting from the summer.”
Dandamudi said that in the first year of attending nationals they placed in the mid 30s, out of 60 total competing teams. They’ve made consistent progress, in 2022 ranking 22nd and in 2023 ranking 21st “our best so far.” However, this year the team aims to place higher.
The coaches consistently attempt to strike a balance between the ambition students have to obtain new knowledge and pursue the subjects they’re passionate about, while also maintaining a competitive streak.
“We run the team differently compared to the way the very top teams nationwide are run,” Spieker said. “In any case, we are proud to get the results we get by applying an open participation policy and other operating principles that benefit a larger number of students than just the top 15.
“We feel that finishing in the top half or so of the teams nationwide is exceptional, given the open participation opportunity we provide, the main foundation of which is offering an exceptional STEM learning opportunity for all who choose to be a part of it.”
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