Division B Turns in Some Top Performances at Montana's Science Olympiad

 

December 18, 2019



Chinook’s Division B Team had a great showing at the 35th Montana Science Olympiad (MTSO), according to their coach, Kendall Harwood. Held on Tuesday, November 26 in the Strand Union Building and other locations across Montana State University—Bozeman’s campus, the MTSO is billed as Montana’s premier STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) competition for youth. Several students formed teams to represent Chinook School District and came away with some top performances.

Every year, at the Montana Science Olympiad (MTSO), middle and high school teams from around Montana compete against other schools in rigorous, standards-based challenges across a range of STEM topics. Teams compete in one of two Science Olympiad Divisions: Division B (Grades 6-9) or Division C (Grades 9-12). An article in last week’s newspaper focused on the results of the Division C team.

Some of the top performances in Division B came from Anna Terry, Lexi Pitkanen, Kaden Green, and Isaiah Gillett. Listat Pope, Lily Munari, Flint Annis, and Lane Snider also participated in Division B.

“We had a much smaller team this year due to two junior high basketball games being scheduled during the time we were gone,” Harwood explained. “Usually we would have a full team of 15 to fill all events. This year we only had eight, even with some students borrowed from the freshman class, so we knew we wouldn’t be shooting for a top team finish.

“Still, the kids were using the Science Olympiad as a positive academic experience and preparation for next year. We had three students who had never entered in the Science Olympiad before and still placed in the top 10 out of 52 teams in their individual events,” Harwood added.

Anna Terry and Lexi Pitkanen placed 6th of 52 in the event Write it Do it. In this event, one partner looks at an unusual object and must write directions on how to build it. The partner then comes into the room where the object is broken down into raw materials. They must then build from the directions written for them by their partner.

Terry and Pitkanen also placed 16th as Disease Detectives. Participants in this competition use investigative skills in the scientific study of disease, injury, health and disability in populations or groups of people.

“The girls had to answer questions about pandemics and different disease symptoms. This is a difficult competition, so they did great,” Harwood said.

Placing only one rank below their classmates, Kaden Green and Isaiah Gillett took on the Fossils competition and placed 7th out of 52. In this category, teams identified and classified fossils and demonstrated their knowledge of ancient life by completing tasks related to interpretation of past environments and ecosystems, adaptations and evolutionary relationships, and use of fossils in dating and correlating rock units.

Green and Gillett felt they made a strong showing because they had recently studied a unit on rocks in their Earth Science class. The currency of that information enabled them to recall many facts about sedimentary rocks.

“I am very proud of these two,” Harwood said. “They attended every after school practice and studied hard.”

Green and Gillett also competed in Heredity, a category which challenged participants to solve problems and to analyze data or diagrams using their knowledge of the basic principles of genetics. They placed 36th after facing questions dealing with Punnett squares and Mendelian genetics.

Punnett and Mendel are two names that anyone who has studied genetics will likely recognize. One of the easiest ways to calculate the mathematical probability of inheriting a specific trait was invented by the early 20th century English geneticist and mathematician, Reginald Crundall Punnett. His technique employs a simple graphical way of discovering all of the potential combinations of genotypes that can occur in offspring, given the genotypes of their parents.

Resembling a tic-tac-toe playing grid, Punnett squares are used as predictive tools when considering the genetics of offspring. The value of studying genetics is in understanding how we can predict the likelihood of inheriting particular traits. Punnett squares can help plant and animal breeders in developing varieties that have more desirable qualities. They can also help people explain and predict patterns of inheritance in family lines.

Punnett devised his probability grid in 1905, long after Gregor Mendel’s experiments with pea plants. Known as the Father of Genetics, Mendel discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance. Without the ease of the Punnett square, he deduced that genes come in pairs and are inherited as distinct units, one from each parent. Mendel tracked the segregation of parental genes and their appearance in the offspring as dominant or recessive traits.

The advanced biology content of this Division B category provides evidence of the rigor of the MTSO.

Listat Pope and Lily Munari took on some difficult subjects as well. By determining the identity of substances in test tubes and studying fingerprint analysis, they found the criminal in their event, Crime Busters, placing 17th overall. Given a scenario, a collection of evidence, and possible suspects, the pair performed a series of tests that they used, along with other evidence, to solve their crime.

Later in the day, Pope and Munari took on two more events, placing 24th in Meteorology and 29th in Water Quality. The Meteorology event invited the two competitors to demonstrate their understanding of basic meteorological principles associated with severe weather. Emphasis in this category was on analysis and interpretation of meteorological data, graphs, charts, and images.

In the Water Quality category, the team was assessed on their understanding and evaluation of marine and estuary aquatic environments.

Chinook’s builders for MTSO were Flint Annis and Lane Snider, who competed in the Boomilever contest. Meeting requirements specified in the rules to achieve the highest structural efficiency, Annis and Snider constructed a balsa wood boomilever—a wooden structure that is attached to a wall from a single point or area that holds weight. Although their boomilever held a good amount of weight, the pair only placed 27th in that event.

Annis and Snider didn’t have much luck with their Mousetrap Vehicle either, according to Coach Harwood. For this competition, they designed, built, and tested a vehicle using a single mousetrap as its sole means of propulsion to reach a target as quickly and accurately as possible.

“Although their vehicle uncharacteristically ended up going in the wrong direction, those two did learn a valuable lesson in event preparation and in keeping their heads about them during competition,” Harwood reported.

About his team’s overall performance, Harwood expressed pleasure: “The Chinook Division B team represented their town with class. I look forward to next year.”

Students raised the funds to attend this trip by selling Elliott’s Cookie Dough and Candied Popcorn throughout the year. They made enough money to pay their MTSO entry fees, hotel expenses, and two dinners on the trip, as well as to purchase commemorative t-shirts.

 
 

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