Whopping Number of Trophies & Medals for AMC and AUC!

After facing 58 other middle and high school teams in the South Florida Regional Science Olympiad, Archimedean competitors once again defended their legacies as South Florida Science Olympiad powerhouses by bringing home an impressive three team trophies and a whopping 122 individual medals from the Regional Science Olympiad tournament last February, four of the six Archimedean teams now getting in their last few days of practice and preparations before representing Miami at the state-level competition in Central Florida this Saturday.

Miami, FL – A mind deep in concentration guides a pencil through quick calculations to determine the fall speed of a three-centimeter-wide hailstone. A sharp exhale of suspense follows a wooden tower finally collapsing under the weight of an attached sand-filled bucket. Eyes dash focused back-and-forth carefully double-checking that the code is logically grouped as time ticks away. Adrenaline-induced hand tremors are quieted with a few controlled inhalations before grasping the robotic arm joystick in the hopes of master manipulating pennies onto a bullseye. Brains sweat as they collaboratively ponder an experimental design to test an as-of-two-minutes-ago unknown hypothesis. Delicate rubber band-powered, wooden helicopters gently float upward like the parachute seeds of dandelions carrying the hopes of winning a medal into the air. No matter your particular interest, attending any Science Olympiad tournament means suspenseful encounters with preteen- and teen-induced inspiration strewn amidst creative innovation, the knowledge amassed by passionate young competitors in the months, weeks, and days leading up to competition never failing to impress, this year’s 2017 South Florida Regional tournament, which took place in Palm Beach County on February 18, meeting expectations once again.

On that Saturday morning, Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, welcomed 19 middle and 45 high school teams from around South Florida, the students competing all day in the B [middle school] or C [high school] division events of this tournament. In the end, two of Archimedean Middle Conservatory’s three teams, team Argo and team Paralos, walked away with first-and second-place overall finishes, their third team, Omega, ranking 13th. At the same time, team Alpha of Archimedean Upper Conservatory finished in second place right behind longstanding archrival Boca Raton Community High School, teams Beta and Gamma ranking a highly respectable 7th and 25th, respectively. The three-team trophies earned by the Middle [A.M.C.] and Upper Conservatories [A.U.C.], however, were not the only exciting hardware students retuned to Miami sporting later that evening, a total of 73 top-six medals for outstanding performance in 36 events adorning the necks of numerous Archimedean sixth-through-twelfth-grade competitors, the high school’s teams, amidst formidable competition, managing to earn a total of 44 top-twenty event finishes by the end of the evening, etching still deeper Archimedean’s ongoing overall reputation as one of the top one-to-two leading schools in the South Florida Science Olympiad scene. These results also guarantee that both Archimedean Middle and Upper Conservatories once more will get to compete at the state-level competition taking place this Saturday in Orlando.

Over the past 33 years, Science Olympiad has come to be regarded nationally as one of the most prestigious science-based competitions for middle and high school students, it welcomes the participation of well over seven thousand teams from all 50 U.S. states [www.soinc.org]. Teams of up to 15 students each spend months, even years, studying, practicing, designing, and building, readying themselves, in general, to compete in 23 different events covering a myriad of fields in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics], including Research Methodology, Earth & Space Science, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Physics, Chemistry, Ecology, Anatomy & Physiology, Mathematics, Forensics, Microbiology, Geology, Astronomy, Programming, Prototype Designing, Meteorology, and more, competition preparation offering students a myriad of outlets for the development of greater collaborative, problem-solving, critical thinking, and creative design skills, while simultaneously also augmenting students’ scientific literacy, an essential need in today’s world so filled with continually advancing technology. Though individual medals can be earned by students in each of the events, the teams that show the strongest overall finishes at the Regional-level competitions across the country, go on to compete at the state-level tournaments, the top one to two state-winning teams earning the right to represent their home states at the coveted National Science Olympiad tournament, this year’s final competition taking place at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, later this May. Once again, teams from both Archimedean Middle and Upper Conservatories will now be traveling to Orlando in just a few days to set up for this Saturday’s exciting Florida state-level Olympiad, their goal being to recreate past performances that have resulted in repeated team wins and trips to the Nationals.

A true team event, Science Olympiad teams cannot rank highly without every member pulling their weight in the individual events he or she may compete in. Congratulations are in order for those students who walked away with medals and who thus are a big part of the reason for Archimedean’s outstanding overall successes in last month’s Regional competition. Gold medals in Division C were earned by A.U.C.’s Sergio Diaz and Anvith Krishnan in Anatomy & Physiology, Riya Gandhi and Daniel Torrejon in Astronomy, Anvith Krishnan and Julio Trujillo in Electric Vehicle, Neel Gandhi and Riya Gandhi in Game On, Arian Mansur and Reva Dixit in Microbe Mission, Neel Gandhi and Dmitri Morales in Robot Arm, Arian Mansur and Angela Diaz in Rocks and Minerals, Angela Diaz and Jacqueline Chin in Towers, Georgia De Loza and Joseph Luis in Forensics, and Ioannis Georgoulakis and Sanjana Surana in Helicopters, Silver medals were earned by A.U.C.’s Anvith Krishnan, Julio Trujillo, and Dmitri Morales in Experimental Design, Reva Dixit and Jacqueline Chin in Forensics, Alaekya Shetty and Jorge Suarez in Helicopters, Kleis Val and Jorge Suarez in Remote Sensing, and Neel Gandhi and Dmitri Morales in Wind Power. Bronze medals were earned by A.U.C.’s Gabriela Ulloa and Sanjana Surana in Electric Vehicle, and Anthony Mansur, and Evelyn Garcia in Robot Arm. Finally, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-place medals went to Daniel Torrejon and Sergio Diaz in Dynamic Planet [4th], Daniel Torrejon and Alaekya Shetty in Invasive Species [4th], Daniel Montaño and Evelyn Garcia in Ecology [4th], Golnoosh Goltapeh and Martina Valle in Forensics [4th], Evelyn Garcia and Daniel Montaño in Invasive Species [5th], Gabriela Ulloa and Alejandro Paneque in Material Sciences [6th], and Joseph Luis & Yolanda Romero in Rocks & Minerals [6th].

In Division B, gold medals were earned by A.M.C.’s Camila Cordero and Patricia Diaz in Fast Facts, Invasive Species, Road Scholar, and Towers, Aryan Gala and Kelly Benitez in Food Science, Giuliana Cabrera and Kendrick Cua in Meteorology, Claudia Viton and Sai Lasya Munamarty in Anatomy, Nicholas Hartog and Elys Anaya in Optics, Nicholas Hartog and Ethan Yu in Wind Power, Nicholas Hartog, Krithika Bharadwaj, and Hellen Rabelo in Reach for the Stars, Sophia Diaz and Emilio Canales in Bottle Rocket, Elys Anaya and Alain Fornes in Dynamic Planet, and Sophia Diaz and Alain Fornes in Rocks & Minerals. Silver medals were earned by A.M.C.’s Camila Cordero and Kendrick Cua in Dynamic Planet, Patricia Diaz, Giuliana Cabrera, and Kendrick Cua in Experimental Design, Aryan Gala and Kendrick Cua in Wind power, Kelly Benitez and Sai Lasya Munamarty in Bottle Rocket, Nicholas Hartog and Emilio Canales in Road Scholar, Nicholas Hartog and Ethan Yu in Wright Stuff, Elys Anaya and Hellen Rabelo in Anatomy, Sophia Diaz and Emilio Canales in Fast Facts, Hellen Rabelo and Krithika Bharadwaj Write It Do It, and Juan Londono in Wright Stuff. Bronze medals were earned by A.M.C.’s Aryan Gala and Alexis Hartog in Disease Detectives, Giuliana Cabrera, and Claudia Viton in Rocks & Minerals, Alexis Hartog and Jeffrey Jiang in Optics, and Aditi Kumar and Juan Londono in Anatomy. Last, but certainly not least, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-place medals went to Giuliana Cabrera and Sai Lasya Munamarty in Microbe Mission [4th], Claudia Viton and Giulissa Cabrera in Ecology [4th], Kelly Benitez and Jeffrey Jiang in Write It Do It [4th], Daniela Alfonso and Frances Lopez in Invasive Species [5th], Aditi Kumar and Juan Londono in Dynamic Planet [5th], Aditi Kumar and Angel Peña in Windpower [5th], Alex Eng and Aryan Lund in Rocks & Minerals [5th], Aryan Gala and Alexis Hartog in Reach for the Stars [6th], Sebastian Sanchez in Invasive Species [6th], and Thomas Arango in Scrambler [6th].

he Archimedean Schools wish all Florida competitors heading to compete this Saturday in this year’s Florida Science Olympiad, hosted by the University of Central Florida in Orlando, the best of luck and hope the memories and knowledge built will result in a lifetime of joy, awe, and inspiration!