Clinton High School student Rebecah Bashant had big plans for her week off of school.
“This is all I’m going to do over break,’’ she told Clinton science teachers Kathleen Washburn and Meredith Callaghan. “We’re going to nail this one.’’
Bashant and 15 other Clinton students will return to the New York State Science Olympiad March 13-14 a year after qualifying for the first time in 19 years of competing. In their first state tournament, Clinton placed 28th out of 56 teams that qualified for the tournament.
Last year Clinton’s placement included two Top 10 finishes in two of the 28 categories covering all sciences. Students work in teams of two to put together projects in a time limit per the competition’s directions.
Given the success that Clinton has had the past couple of years, Washburn and Callaghan had enough students to form a varsity and a junior varsity team. At the regional competition, the varsity finished fifth behind four much larger schools, while the JV team took...
To get a sense of just how tough this is, here’s a look at some items teams have to bring with them to the state Olympiad: Triple A North and South Dakota maps, the state tournament bird list and knowing the ceiling heights of rooms to be used at Le Moyne.
This year there are 23 events. Teams earn points for placement in the Top 10 of each category that go for the overall finish.