UNC Asheville to Host Science Olympiad Tournament

Young scientists from 15 middle schools and seven high schools in Western North Carolina will test their talents in the sixth annual regional Science Olympiad Tournament at UNC Asheville Saturday, Feb. 19. The competition will be held from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at various locations across campus.

Each team can field a team of 18 students in 24 middle school events or 25 high school events, ranging from bottle rockets and catapults to robots and airplanes. Among the day’s highlights will be the “Naked Egg Drop” competition, where students will build and test containers designed to catch eggs in a free fall, and the “Mission Possible” event, which tests students on their Rube Goldberg-inspired inventions. These inventions consist of complicated contraptions that perform a seemingly simple task.

About 120 volunteers, including UNC Asheville faculty, staff and students, as well as volunteers from the Colburn Earth Science Museum, the Health Adventure, North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement, North Carolina State University Engineering Programs, Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, the Science House and Sud Associates Consulting Engineers will staff the Olympiad.

Competing Buncombe County schools are A.C. Reynolds Middle and High schools, Asheville Middle School, Cane Creek Middle School, Carolina Day School, Charles D. Owen Middle School, North Buncombe Middle and High schools and North Windy Ridge Middle School. Chase Middle School and Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy represent Rutherford County. Competing Mitchell County schools are Harris Middle School and Mitchell High School. Polk County will send teams from Polk Central Middle School, Tryon Middle School and Polk County High School. Transylvania County’s Brevard Middle School and High School will compete. Macon Middle School, Waynesville Middle School and Franklin High School will also compete.

The winners of the regional tournament will move on to the statewide tournament later this year.

For more information, call Judy Beck, UNC Asheville Physics Department, at 828/251-6049.

Media Contacts:

• Judy Beck, UNCA Physics Department Lecturer, 828/251-6049
• Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526