The Windy Ridge Silver Hawks were recognized with the prestigious Spirit Award at the 2010 National Science Olympiad Tournament May 23rd at the University of Illinois. Thirteen Windy Ridge Middle School students, their coaches and families traveled to the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois to compete in 23 events against the best teams from across the country. “We were shocked and a bit humbled when we heard our team being called on stage to accept this award, there are so many amazing teams at these competitions” said Roger Grant, team coach. What makes this award special is that it is the only one voted on by tournament judges, volunteers and fellow competitors who select the team that most exemplifies the true spirit of the competition. The award comes with a trophy and a $2,000 check from Lockheed Martin.

“We couldn’t be more proud of our students” said Jay Carcara, assistant principal. “In just 3 years of competing, they have accomplished so much: 3 times Central Florida Champions, twice number 2 in the state and twice selected to compete at the National Tournament. This award shows they also have ”the right stuff,” the character traits that will help them be successful in life.”

Windy Ridge takes 2nd place in Florida and gets an invitation to Nationals

Having proved their metal in competition, Windy Ridge’s Science Olympiad Team now faces the daunting task of raising $15,000 needed to compete in the National Tournament at the University of Illinois.

By 7:30 am we are registering Windy Ridge’s 2 teams along with coaches from 50 some other teams, the best from all across the state of Florida. Outside our team and supporting parents are gathering to set up camp for a long day of competition. One more time our students compete in 23 events. Attach your wrist band, complete your event card and you are off to the first events at 9am. And so it goes through out the day: disease detectives, road scholar, fossils, experimental design, anatomy, battery buggy and more, until at 3:00 pm events done we gather again at “camp”. Now the wait for judges to complete their tallies.

Fast forward 3 hours and the award ceremony begins. Our students wait to hear their team called as the judges award individual medals for each event. It has been a tough day of competition and you can see the anticipation and anxiety on the faces of our students; will their hard work be enough? And then it happens Windy Ridge Gold, and again, and again with some bronze and slivers too. In total we take medals in 9 events! Now the individual awards are done and it’s time to announce the top 3 teams overall, of which the top 2 teams will go on to compete at the national meet in May. A quick look at the medal count shows a very close race between Archimedean Conservatory, Orlando Science Middle School and Windy Ridge but overall scores count each student’s place not just the top 3. There is no way to know.

The overall awards begin, we huddle together and listen, “in third place …… Orlando Science Middle School”. We cheer and some venture a tentative smile. I caution them we don’t know yet, not until we hear the words. Another huddle, then we hear “in second place ……. Windy Ridge!” The crowd goes wild well at least it seemed that way to us. We race to the podium pick up our trophy and pose for pictures. I think I spotted a few students signing autographs from adoring fans but I’m not sure. We wait one more time and “in first place Archimedean Conservatory.” We cheer again and congratulate our worthy opponents. It’s been a long, exciting and rewarding day. Now on to the National Competition at the University of Illinois on May 20-22.

Thanks again to all our amazing students, wonderful parents, volunteers and 9th grade assistants.

Here’s our individual medal winners:

Gold Medals:

Ecology: Kristen Williams and Tyler Powers
Experimental Design: Tyler Powers, Jeni Norwalk, and Trisha Sing
Trajectory: Steven Gilmour and Charlotte Labinski
Elevated Bridge: Steven Gilmour and Charlotte Labinski

Silver Medals:

Road Scholar: Jenaan Maali and Trisha Sing
Science Crime Busters: Maren Tomcsak and Jen Gluck

Bronze Medals:

Fossils: Kristen Williams and Maren Tomcsak
Solar System: Heather Gluck and Jenaan Maali
Wright Stuff: Steven Gilmour and Charlotte Labinski

Your Coaches,

Roger Grant and Carrieann Schneider

See you all very soon!

On February 28, 2009 thirty-four bright and intelligent middle school students from Windy Ridge Middle School had the opportunity to represent the Central Region at the state Science Olympiad competition hosted at The University of Central Florida Campus.

These talented children competed against 63 other brilliant schools in various science competitions ranging from robotics, engineering, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, mechanical engineering and technology. The outcome was a first place victory for our Windy Ridge Scientists and then, the bad news, a scoring error put Windy Ridge at second place. The kids were of course disappointed, but being good sports took it all in stride and moved on.

On April 23, Windy Ridge got the news.. Windy Ridge has an opportunity to go to Nationals…. so, in three short weeks, the kids got busy learning their divisions, the parents got busy fundraising and we all left Orlando on May 14 for the time of our life experiences. Overall we were 41st at the National Competition, with our best placement of 7th for Elevated Bridge.

It has been my honor to watch the journey, the children, the parents all bond through this experience. Feel free to go on the blog for favorite moments from parents and students, visit the photos and maybe, just maybe, we can all do this again next year! A very special thank you to each and every parent for bringing their gifts to the team, the teachers for the encouragement they gave and the students for working so hard under pressure. And let not forget the sponsors for making it possible. It will be wonderful seeing our Science Olympiad Flag raised in the Windy Ridge School…… because we all know, our students are America’s future. Congratulations Science Olympiad Team 2008/09 you did it!