On March 12, LB’s middle school Science Olympiad team placed second overall at the Regional Tournament.

Science Olympiad events include, but are not limited to: earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, and technology. It requires active and hands-on group participation, collaboration and creativity.

“Students do a variety of activities, including practicing for tests that they may have for the tournaments,” Todd Murphy, the coordinator of the middle school Science Olympiad said. “We’re also building devices that they use to compete in the engineering events.”

LB competed in a regional tournament against other schools in 23 different events, around three events per person.

The competitions are based on the events. After months of preparation, 30 of LB’s students compete in their events that they were placed in, and later on, judges hosting the event find, and later present, the top six teams with medals.

After naming the individual teams, the judges present the trophies to the top six overall schools.

Bested only by Kilmer, LB’s Science Olympiad teams pulled it together and landed a second place overall. For the individual teams, however, LB’s gold team placed fourth, and LB’s purple team placed a solid second.

Placing second was enough to bring LB to states. But, not everyone on the team made the cut. The team is split in half, from thirty to fifteen; half go to states, the others are taken off the team.

“Even though I didn’t make it to states, I still think Science Olympiad was a great experience, and I can’t wait to try out again next year. I really hope that Lake Braddock does well at states, and pulls it through to nationals!” Rhiannon Staley, a former Science Olympian said.

Nevertheless, with states less than a month away, the students who are on the team are hard at work, and to prepare for the upcoming tournament, the team has challenged themselves to give their best effort.

Some students, like seventh grader Jahnavi Dave, are quite excited about going to states.

“It’s going to be a long day. We have to stay in a hotel overnight, since the competition is at UVA, but I still think that the whole experience is going to be fun. This is definitely not something I’m going to forget.”