On January 25th, MVHS Science Olympiad team traveled to Boston for the eleventh annual MIT Science Olympiad Invitational Tournament.
SciOly, as the team is colloquially known, has three teams: White, Gold and Black. White and Gold are JV teams, while Black is Varsity. The competition includes 23 high school events, with two to three students competing together for each. The MIT tournament does not count toward rankings and cannot qualify the team for advancement to states or nationals.
“Rather than being given a very set curriculum… anything could be on that test… and some events test people’s partnerships,” co-president Nadine Sheridan said.
Events fall into two categories: study events, which test knowledge of a specific subject, and build events, which require students to build and test a device. To prepare, members study both at weekly workshops and on their own time, working with teammates who are competing in the same events.
In order to succeed at competitions, Vice President Soveen Agarwal said that he finds it important to learn and understand concepts, while Sheridan and co-president Avni Nath said they take a lot of notes in order to learn content. To help them learn, SciOly has coaches, though not every event has one.
“It really depends how involved [coaches] want to be and how deep they want to go,” Nath said.
Coaches can introduce techniques or teach content, but success ultimately depends on individual effort, students said.
“If you want to medal, you need to know beyond just what the mentor is teaching you,” Sheridan said.
MVHS has not attended the official Science Olympiad National Tournament since 2022. The MIT invitational provides an opportunity to compete against teams from all across the nation, including ones that they don’t usually face. “It’s a fantastic opportunity,” said Nath.
Many of the nation’s top teams attend MIT, making it one of the most competitive tournaments of the season.
“We definitely are nationals-level competent,” said Sheridan. “There just happens to be a better school in our state.”
At the 2024 National Tournament, two California schools — Monta Vista High School and Troy High School — placed within the top three. At the state tournament, Troy High School in Fullerton, along with other California schools, have extremely competitive teams, making it difficult for MVHS to advance.
“I feel like our performance at MIT is kind of disappointing, to say the least,” Sheridan said.
After MVHS finished 8th overall at MIT, the executive board said they hope to improve the team’s future performance by implementing new ways to learn and study.
“We’re hoping for our next tournament, [the Golden Gate Science Olympiad Invitational], that we can bring it back,” Nath said. “That would be really cool.”
After GGSO, the team will head to the Sacramento Regional in March, where they will compete to qualify for the national tournament.
