Young scientists from 20 middle and high schools in Western North Carolina will test their talents in the eighth annual regional Science Olympiad Tournament at UNC Asheville Saturday, March 17. The competition will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at various locations across campus.    

Each team can field a group of 18 students in 50 events ranging from bottle rockets and catapults to robots and airplanes. Among the day's highlights will be the "Storm the Castle" competition, where students will build and test their catapult-like devices, 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, Cradle of Forestry in America, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, North Carolina State University Engineering Programs, Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, and Sud Associates Consulting Engineers, will staff the Olympiad.

Competing Buncombe County middle schools are A.C. Reynolds, Asheville, Cane Creek, Charles D. Owen and North Buncombe. Participating Buncombe County high schools are A.C. Reynolds, Charles D. Owen, North Buncombe and T.C. Roberson. Additional Buncombe County teams will be fielded from Carolina Day School and Evergreen Community Charter School.

Other Western North Carolina competitors include Brevard, Harris, Polk County, Valley Springs and West McDowell middle schools, Avery and Polk County high schools, Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, and The Mountain Community School.

North Carolina House Representative Susan Fisher will present awards at the closing ceremonies at 3:30 p.m. in UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Hall. The winners of the regional tournament will move on to the statewide tournament later this year.

For more information, call UNC Asheville’s Physics Department at 828/251-6442.

 

Note to Media: The competition offers a host of photographic opportunities.

The following are "walk-in" events with contestants only needing to show up during the designated time frame.  Sorry, we cannot predict when the most students will be there.

* 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. - Bottle rockets on the Quad; Storm the Castle catapult event in the Health and Fitness Center Gymnasium; Tower Building event in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 125; Wright Stuff airplane event in the Health & Fitness Center gymnasium.

Scheduled events:

* 10:30-11:30 a.m. and 2:15-3:15 p.m. -- Mission Possible event in the Health & Fitness Center gymnasium. Students will test their complicated, Rube Goldberg-inspired inventions. The contraptions will execute many steps to perform a simple task.

* 9:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m. -- “Egg-o-naut” egg launch event on the Quad.