Stevenson places 16th in national science contest

Stevenson High School finished 16th in its category at the recent National Science Olympiad Tournament.

The Lincolnshire school was among 60 schools in its division. The event was May 18-21 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

One Stevenson team placed third in its division, while four others were fourth.

Frank Wu and Edward Wu placed third in Wind Power. In this competition, teams built blade machines consisting of propellers, pinwheels or rotors attached to compact discs, and the creations were supposed to capture wind power.

The students also were tested on their knowledge of alternative energy.

Jenny Yan was part of two fourth-place teams, pairing with Andrew Ji in Anatomy and Physiology, and with Dennis Huang in Microbe Mission.

The Anatomy and Physiology competition focused on selected body systems. This year’s picks were the respiratory, muscular and endocrine systems.

In Microbe Mission, teams answered questions, solved problems and analyzed data about microbes.

The other two fourth-place winning groups competed in demonstration events that did not count toward team scores.

Michael Hauptmann and Emily Luo place fourth in Robot Arm. They designed, built and tested a robotic arm similar to industrial robots before the competition. The arm had to be capable of sorting objects.

Additionally, David Chen, David Whisler and Vivian Wan placed fourth in Flying Bird.

They constructed two rubber-powered mechanical flying birds, called ornithopters. The devices were propelled solely by flapping wings.

Competitors sought to keep their ornithopters in the air longer than each other.