Over the weekend, 22 teams from 17 regional schools participated in a Science Olympiad hosted at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville.
The event, officially called the Mississippi Gulf South Regional Science Olympiad, lasted the better part of Saturday and featured a number of events in which teams competed.
PRCC Science Mathematics and Business Department Chair Karen Bond said the only local school to participate this year was Pearl River Central High School. Some of the events included bridge building, flying devices and use of a robotic arm.
While no cash prizes were involved in Saturday’s event, winners of the regional event would be invited to compete in the state event. Winners of the state event will go on to nationals, where cash prizes are involved, said Regional Event Director Robert Maynard.
The ultimate aim of the Olympiad was to generate student interest in science related topics, such as physics and fossils, and also have students work as a team.
In the robot arm event, participants were tasked with picking up small objects using the arm and placing them in specific egg crates within an allotted time. The bridge building event tasked teams with building a bridge capable of supporting 15 kilograms of sand. Maynard said there was also a crime scene investigation event, where teams were given evidence they would have to use to solve a specific crime.
“We like to think of this as the anti-science fair, because it’s not about the best projects you can make the night before,” Maynard said.
This was the second year the event was hosted at PRCC, Bond said, and there are plans to continue hosting the event each year.