Science Olympiad: A fierce competition for the top spot, to truly determine which school has the strongest science programs and even stronger leaders.

   Pines Charter’s Science Olympiad team has always maintained their underdog status—working as hard as they can to try and claw their way into the top ten against fierce competition from local high schools, such as Archimedean Academy and American Heritage. This year, one of Charter’s teams managed to hit 6th place and qualify for states—an impressive feat on its own. 

   Led by the club’s President, Matthew Castillo, the school’s Avocado’s Number, a food-based pun on Avogadro’s Number, pulled themselves to 14th place overall in States. 

   There were a few standouts in the performances in States, but none greater than junior and Science Olympiad Parliamentarian Emily Brown. With the help from her partner, Sophia Torchia, the duo managed to secure the 1st place award in the Write It, Do It event. The contest required one teammate to write down instructions with the other following it to the best of their ability. According to Emily Brown, her win was “…really shocking honestly. Me and my partner Sophia did Write It Do It last year and we got last place at regionals, so to win at states was surreal.”

   Aside from Emily Brown and Sophia Torchia’s award-winning performance, the team also earned 3rd place in the Detector Building category, an event where the teams have to build a scale that measures mass from 0-1000 grams accurately. The machine in question was accurate within one gram, which is absolutely stellar, and was built by juniors Matthew Estevez and Nikhil Sangamkar. 

   Matthew Estevez claims he was completely shocked, especially since, “I have only been to states one other time, which was my 7th grade year. From 8th – 10th we did not have in-person states because of COVID, but I remembered from 7th grade that it was extremely competitive.”   

   After the club has significantly improved over the last couple of years, one wonders how the club will fare after every single one of the main officers graduate this year. President Matthew Castillo expresses that he thinks “…the club will be in good hands next year, based on who we’ve been considering to take over officer positions… Our club’s only been on the rise for the past few years, so I assume it’ll only continue to grow.”

   As this year’s Science Olympiad competition season draws to a close, PPCHS’s team Avocado’s Number did excellently this year and it seems like the entire school is waiting with baited breath for next year.