Kids compete at Science Olympiad

SOCORRO – Elizabeth Thomas and Shayla Cogan from Albuquerque Area Homeschoolers, in a race against time, pieced together a set of clues to find the “murderer” from among five suspects.

“I think we were able to go through the evidence under a lot of pressure and process it well enough to figure out who did it,” Thomas said, noting they had less than an hour to analyze fibers, powders, hairs, fingerprints and DNA to solve the crime.

Forensic science was just one of the science and technology based competitions at the state finals of the New Mexico Science Olympiad Saturday at New Mexico Tech, where middle school and high school students from across the state displayed their talents in math, science and technology.

The Olympiad hosted more than 50 teams, with only one high school team and one middle school team advancing to the National Science Olympiad this summer. The results from Saturday’s competition were not available as of press time.

Asked what she’ll take away from the competition, Thomas said, “I like to understand a process. Now when I watch a crime show, I’ll know the process.”

Cogan’s mother, Nancy Cogan, said her son was the first to compete in the Olympiad in a bridge building competition three years ago.

“He had a lot of fun, and it was a way for him to find out whether or not he wanted to be an engineer, and now my daughter is interested in science, and she had a lot of fun, too,” Nancy Cogan said.

“For me as a mother, it’s fun, but also tough and a little stressful at times,” she said, noting that her daughter’s team has been training for the event since September.

Set at the New Mexico Tech campus in Socorro, the Olympiad strives to improve science education throughout the state, said Olympiad coordinator Rose Baca-Rivet.

Some of the categories among the nearly 40 competitions were titled “Disease Detectives,” “Crime Busters,” “Sounds of Music” and “Reach for the Stars.”

“These kids are the finest who come and compete against the finest,” she said.

Competitions strike a balance between the various science disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, computers and other technologies.

They learn and demonstrate their prowess in knowing science facts, concepts, processes, skills and science applications, she said. Students win medals and trophies.

“This is an elite collection of young scientists and technicians, and a lot of them come back to school here or go on to other engineering schools because of this competition,” she said. “We try to show the kids that believe it or not, science can be fun and can be cool.”