Parklane Academy senior high students won first place in the Mississippi Science Olympiad — for the fifth year in a row — held at the University of Southern Mississippi on March 31.
And this year, the junior high group joined their elders making the highest marks, bringing home the trophy for first place.
Carol Reeves, Lisa Loper, Dr. Shahla Anderson and high school principal Sid Siebert supervised and coached the 16 high school and 15 junior high team members in their projects.
But the adults give all the credit to the kids who made it to the top.
Both teams will be traveling in May to the National Science Olympiad competition at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
“We hope to do our state proud and our school proud,” said Siebert, who led the junior high team.
The Science Olympiad is broken into three divisions — A for elementary students, B for junior high, and C for high schoolers. Parklane does not have an elementary team, but it’s a possibility in the future, if an adviser steps forward to take on the challenge.
This year the high school team competed against 20 other teams, and the junior high team matched wits with teams from 26 other schools across the state.
Reeves teaches anatomy and physiology and advanced biology. Loper teaches calculus, pre-calculus and honors geometry, and Anderson teaches physics and chemistry.
But the group of core Science Olympiad advisers said other teachers at Parklane jump in and help with needed. “We have mentors, retired teachers and professors, who come in and help,” Siebert said. “And our parent support is great.”
Every year, Siebert said, the Olympiad devises updated events and new contests, keeping the students on their toes and giving them new challenges.
Each division Parklane students participated in had 25 team events this year. On the high school level they included Anatomy and Physiology, Disease Detectives, Protein Modeling, Robot Arm, Helicopters, Optics, Sounds of Music, Thermodynamics and WriteItDoIt.
That last event is for two students — one of whom writes the instructions to build a pictured object, and the other, who reads them and actually constructs the object, without seeing what it looks like.
Among the junior high events were Anatomy, Awesome Aquifers, Bottle Rocket, Crime Buster, Meteorology, Mission Possible, Mousetrap Vehicle, Storm the Castle and Reach for the Stars.
The lower the number, the higher the score in the Olympiad. Parklane’s senior high team, which includes five graduating seniors, scored an 80. It’s closest competitor was the team from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, which had a 122.
On the junior high level, Parklane students scored an 80, and its nearest competitor was Germantown Middle School, with a 137.
“We entered them all; we want to win,” Loper said.
Loper and Reeves said they’re proud of the students’ successes, and they worked hard to take the top spots — working during study time, after school, on weekends and whenever they could cram the time into their schedules.
The team advisers and teachers said the Science Olympiad students are highly motivated and look for every opportunity to excel.
“They want to do well,” Reeves said. “This group of seniors started the Olympiad competition as ninth-graders. ... Every year it’s a building process. They’re motivated to do things on their own.”
Reeves said the Olympiad teams must have knowledge of subjects beyond ordinary high school tests. Regional competition is based on high school level information. At state contest, it’s first-year college matter; and at the national level, the contest draws from third- and fourth-year college level knowledge.
Parklane students bringing home individual first-place medals in the high school division were Morgan Plummer and Allen Lampton, Forensics; Blass Watson and Robert Loper, Helicopters and Robot Arm; Dallas McClendon and Watson, Thermodynamics; McClendon and Alaina Williams, Optics; and Brannon Jordan and Jacob Shepherd, Rocks and Minerals.
Second-place high school winners were Ashley Jordan and Jamie Lou Goodwin, Anatomy and Physiology; Goodwin and Watson, Disease Detectives; Williams, Mary Elizabeth Stringer and McClendon, Experimental Design; Clayton Dyar and Shepherd, Gravity Vehicle; Plummer and Bella Hutson, Protein Modeling; Hutson and Williams, Sounds of Music; Mary Elizabeth Stringer and Loper, Towers; Ashley Jordan and Dyarf, Water Quality; and Tyler Cutrer and Williams, Triple E.
Third-place high school individual winners were McClendon and Jamie Lou Goodwin, Microbe Mission; and Shepherd and Brannon Jordan, We’ve Got Your Number.
In the junior high events, individual medals went to George Anglin and Mat-thew Weaver, Bottle Rocket; Brianna Kennedy, Sydney Krieger and Jahona Doucette, Experimental Design; George Anglin and Caleb Byrd, Forestry; Brianna Kennedy and Olivia Steele, Mission Possible; Cole Blue and Weaver, Mousetrap Vehicle; Blue and Reece Paulk, Road Scholar; Byrd and Weaver, Storm the Castle; Blue and Krieger, Towers; and Becca DeLee and Ashton Bridges, Water Quality.
Second-place awards went to Krieger and Dou-cette, Anatomy; DeLee and Paulk, Awesome Aquifers; Anglin and Jack Lampton, Keep the Heat; Ashton Bridges and Olivia Steele, Rocks and Minerals; and Weaver and Blue, Triple E.
Bringing home fourth-place individual medals in the junior high division were Paulk and Kennedy, Compute This; Alex Willis and Byrd, Disease Detectives; Marlee McAnally and Krieger, Dynamic Planet; and Willis and Peyton Greer, Microbe Mission.
All of the students who will compete in Florida will have two or more events at nationals.
Since nationals are just a little more than a month away, the school and its supporters are going into fundraising mode.
“It’s expensive to take all these kids to nationals,” Loper said.
A huge fundraising “Sidewalk Sale for Science” will be held from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 5 at the school.
Anyone who wants to make a donation may contact the Parklane business office at 684-8113 or any Science Olympiad student.
