The official Olympics may be a year away, but Springfield will be having its own Olympiad this month.

On Feb. 18, the College of Natural and Applied Sciences at MSU will host the Regional Science Olympiad.

Twenty-eight teams will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals and other awards, with the top teams going to the state competition.

The teams will be made up of middle and high school students from southwest Missouri.

“The Science Olympiad competition gives individuals in middle school and high school an opportunity to show their knowledge and skills in science and engineering,” Dr. Tamera Jahnke, dean of the college said.

The competition

The day will be jam-packed with fun, challenging activities in various science areas.

“Some events are pure knowledge tests, while others involve lab work or critical-thinking skills,” Jahnke said.

The official activity categories are:

• Life, personal and social science.
• Earth and space science.
• Physical science and chemistry.
• Technology and engineering.
• Inquiry and nature of science.

There is a wide range of goals for student participants:

• Demonstrate competency of devices they built.
• Reach a solution to a problem with a given variety of chemicals and equipment.
• Test student knowledge on specific subjects such as anatomy and physiology.
• Measure computational skills in different areas of mathematics or physics.

The itinerary

The Olympiad will begin at 7 a.m., closing at 5 p.m.

Most events will take place within classrooms, but a few events will be open to the public.

The chemistry and biochemistry department will perform fun demonstrations and discuss their department research opportunities at 3 p.m., followed by the Olympiad awards ceremony at 4 p.m. at McDonald Arena. Both events are open to the public.

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