Daniel Wright crowned Science Olympiad champion

For the second year in a row, Daniel Wright Middle School in Lincolnshire was crowned the Division B Science Olympiad champion.

"The success is due to the Science Olympiad community in the school district and the willingness of the students and parents to put in the time it takes to be an elite team," said Nan Buckardt, one of the team's coaches.

There were 29 students on this year's team, with 15 of them competing at the national level during this year's tournament May 19 to 20 at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio

Students were responsible for completing 23 events throughout the day. Some of the tasks included launching rockets, testing hovercrafts, performing food science experiments and finding the source of an outbreak.

The school with the lowest score is the winner, and Daniel Wright Middle School received a score of 165, beating the second-place finisher by 20 points.

"They have a blast becoming scientists," Buckardt said. "There is a small subset of teams that are highly competitive, and happily we are one of them."

Daniel Wright Middle School earned second place in 2013 and third place in 2014, but winning back-to-back in 2016 and 2017 is an "amazing thrill," Buckardt said.

"The kids, event coaches and team parents put in so many hours of preparation and miles of driving kids to practices and competitions," she said. "Mary Ellen (Buckley) and I each coached one event, but helped support the event coaches whenever we were needed."

Middle schools made up Division B teams, while high schools made up Division C. Altogether, 120 schools attended the competition.

Science Olympiad has held STEM competitions for middle schools and high schools for three decades, Executive Director of Science Olympiad Jenny Kopach said. Other than the competition, students hear presentations that Kopach hopes inspires them to pursue STEM fields later in life.

"We certainly need to close the gap, not only for the number of students going into the science field, but especially the number of girls and minority students who are following this path," Kopach said.

"We're doing our best to help inspire them, and it gives us so much satisfaction to see those students in the audience and hope we're doing our best to set them on a course for a successful future in STEM."

Buckley and Buckardt will no longer coach the Daniel Wright Middle School team. Buckardt will still be involved in Science Olympiad in a non-coaching position, however.

"It is very hard to say goodbye to the team - each team is very special in its own way," she said. "It has been a privilege to help kids love science."