Science Olympiad Team Advances To States

Hauppauge Middle School students are proving they have the scientific knowledge to think on their feet. 

The Hauppauge Middle School Science Olympiad team placed sixth out of 41 teams competing at the Eastern Long Island Science Olympiad Competition on March 5. Their placement qualifies to advance to the state level. 

“The students have worked so hard, and we are incredibly proud of their accomplishments,” said Katherine O’Callaghan, Science Olympiad coach and science teacher, in a statement.  “We are extremely excited to be representing HMS at the state tournament in April, and look forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

The Science Olympiads test students' knowledge of different science topics and engineering abilities in 23 different events. These events fall under three different categories: Science Concepts and Knowledge, Science Processes and Thinking Skills, and Science Application and Technology. Based on category, the students will be asked to provide their knowledge via written test, perform lab experiments or might be asked to construct devices in a engineering-based task. 

More than 14, 000 teams compete in the Science Olympiad competitions each year. Hauppauge Middle School will advance to the New York State Competition on April 9 and 8 at SUNY Ulster in Kingston, NY. If the team succeeds, they will advance to the national competition. 

Several Hauppauge team members also placed an individual events:  Marc Lattanzi and Matthew Fortmeyer took  fourth place in Shock Value, Leland Reisfield and Camille Daly took  fourth place in Solar System, and James Bei and James Spinaris for third place in the event Mag Lev.