Cannons of Carolina: Science Olympiad Highlights from Regionals

First, I have to tell you that on Sunday, March 6th, 2011, Jeremy passed the sacrament for the first time. He was so happy to be a part of the sacrament and smile on his face said it all. We are so proud of him.

Okay, now on to the Science Olympiad. Saturday, March 12th, 2011, was the regional competition for the North Carolina Science Olympiad. Our group decided to compete in the Catawba County regionals this year. We had to be up bright and early since the drive to Hickory was about an hour and a half. We got everything and everyone in the car right on time and were heading to get on the freeway when we remembered the bottle rockets were in Steve's office. Thank goodness we were still relatively close to home when we remembered. We still arrived on time and ready to compete. Jeremy was confident due to all the studying we had been doing. His Experimental Design team had gone from disorganized and dysfunctional to completely confident and complimentary. They were ready for this. In fact, they came out of the room smiling and saying they felt good about the job they did. It was interesting to watch some of the other events (that weren't behind closed doors). The kids enjoyed watching how much fun science can be. Jeremy did well in Bottle Rocket that afternoon as well. Alexa, a teammate, stepped in at the last minute to help Jeremy get his rockets loaded and launched. We had made two rockets and the only way to get to launch both rockets was to have Alexa stand in.

At the awards ceremony, Team Quest did really well. They got the Spirit Award which goes to the team that showed the best sportsmanship. Jeremy's Experimental Design team was specifically mentioned as being very polite and sharing their calculator with another team that had forgotten theirs. At the end of the ceremony, after all the individual medals had been given out, Team Quest ended up taking home the second place trophy. Jeremy was upset because he was the only person on the team with out a medal around his neck. Thank goodness for an amazing coach. Amy took him aside and told him that it didn't matter that he didn't place 5th or higher in order to medal. He had done well in the standings and helped the team to a second place position. They could not have done it without him. She also pointed out that his Experimental Design team had really helped them with the Spirit Award and, to her, that was the more important award. It showed that our team was confident and friendly and knew that there was more to competing than winning. She also pointed out that of all the Varsity teams in the room, Team Quest was the only team that had 6th graders on their team. All the other sixth graders in the room were on the JV teams. Jeremy has a renewed energy and dedication to getting ready for the state competition at the end of April.

The individual results of the events came out on the NCSO website last night and Jeremy ended up in 13th (out of 23) for bottle rockets and 6th for experimental design!!! Way to go, Jeremy!