Ballston Spa Science Olympiad Team Goes to State Competition

SCHUYLERVILLE —

Schuylerville Middle School seventh-grade students got a unique opportunity to see life through a Revolutionary War soldier’s eyes, during an in-person visit from Ft. Ticonderoga educators.

All of Rebecca Nesbitt’s social studies students experienced the “A Soldier’s Life” presentation, given by Johanna Hambly and Nathan Schultz. The engaging 45-minute program incorporated history, geography, and math to provide context to the daily experience of American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Students explored the equipment and food of soldiers and discussed the challenges of equipping and feeding an army in a remote location.

“One of the things I really like about programs like this is kids often have trouble conceptualizing what happened so long ago,” said Nesbitt. “This program is hands-on and makes it real.”

Students also had an opportunity to examine high-quality reproductions of items that soldiers carried during the Revolution, as well as try on clothing. The program aligns with Schuylerville Middle School’s Revolutionary War curriculum, which is taught to all seventhgrade students.

BALLSTON SPA —

The Ballston Spa High School Science Olympiad team placed third at the Capital Region Science Olympiad Tournament, which was recently held at Ballston Spa High School. Eighteen high school teams from throughout the Capital Region competed in the tournament.

Ballston Spa students won medals in 19 out of 23 events including first place in five of the events. The first-place medal winners and their respective events include Maddie Burns and Lee McKinley in “Write It Do It” and “Trajectory,” Maddie Burns and Max Amodeo in “Chemistry Lab,” Maddie Wilson and Jax Skylstad in “Rocks and Minerals,” and Max Amodeo and Riley Box in “Flight.”

Their successful finish qualified the team for the New York State competition at Le Moyne College on March 17 and 18. The team is coached by High School science instructors Theresa Rousseau and Jim Poirier.

The Science Olympiad tournament is a rigorous, aca demic, interscholastic competi tion that consists of a series of individual and team events which the students prepare for throughout the year. The events are wellbalanced between the various science disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, computers and technology. The team of 15 students competed in 23 events which range from the construction of a rubber band propelled plane to college-level pen-and-paper assessments.

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