Ruthie Jia

Senior James Liao and freshmen Bryan Zhang and Aaron Dorrance take a break between events.

With a blend of science and engineering, the Science Olympiad regional competition was held on Feb. 22 at Lindenwood University. Out of 19 teams, the Parkway West team received seventh place.

“We got ready for competition by taking notes and using practice tests that we found online. The best part of Science Olympiad is all the scientific events; they range from Chem Lab to Experimental Design to Astronomy. You learn a lot by the time competition rolls around,” junior Aron Tesfai said.

However, the team struggled to set up 23 events for 13 members.

“The one thing that I would work on is the organization of the team. As a group, we’re not very structured, and I’d like to change that,” senior James Liao said.

The organization of the team was largely dependent on the amount of people in the club.

“It was difficult finding enough people that stayed committed throughout the entire season. Everyone had other activities and clubs that they were involved in, so we couldn’t organize days where everyone could meet,” sophomore Joan Tao said.

Due to other commitments, several students dropped the competition.

“Some people dropped at the last minute. We had to reschedule, so a lot of people ended up with events that they didn’t originally plan on. Because of that, some events weren’t prepared as well as they could’ve been,” Tesfai said.

Regardless of the challenges, most members were satisfied with their achievements. The team placed in the top five in eight events.

“We did pretty well at regionals despite it being only our second year. Next year, we should start preparing for our events sooner, and hopefully we’ll be able to make state,” Tao said.