Three teams of local high school students created towers of spaghetti, candy catapults and edible musical instruments for a chance to win four $1,000 scholarships to WKU. Students from Bowling Green High School, Warren Central High School and Butler County High School competed in five food-themed events during the Physics Olympics on Saturday in Kelly Thompson Hall. The Physics Olympics is a half-day competition hosted by the WKU Department of Physics and Astronomy that consists of various problem-solving activities. The competition rewarded teamwork, creativity and communication, according to the event overview. BGHS ranked highest overall amongst the three schools. The team received a plaque to commemorate their victory along with the four $1,000 scholarships. Teams from WCHS and BCHS were also awarded certificates in individual events in which they ranked highest. The theme of the competition this year was “The Science of Food,” said Kenny Lee, WKU physics instructor. Lee said he’s been a lead organiser of the competition for the past two years. Before working at WKU, Lee taught at WCHS for 25 years and at South Central High School for four years. Lee said he used to enter his students in the Physics Olympics when he was a teacher. Lee said a “big draw” of the Physics Olympics is that it’s fun and not overly intensive. Lee said this is more of a competition about practicing skills that students could use to be successful to an employer, as an adult or as a college student. The Physics Olympics emphasizes skills and abilities not always taught in a normal classroom setting. Lee said competing in the Physics Olympics can also look good on college and scholarship applications. “We encourage them to compete because when they apply for colleges and for scholarships, everybody that applies is smart,” Lee said. “What’s going to set yourself different from everybody else is by competing in things like this.” Students were required to compete in teams of four during the five events of the competition. These events included a Do-Ahead Project completed before the competition day, a Plan-Ahead Competition with items prepared for competition day, a Communication/Calculation Challenge, an Impromptu Activity and an Order of Magnitude Quiz. Teams were tasked with designing and constructing a free-standing spaghetti noodle tower for the Do-Ahead Project. The tower had to be fully completed before the competition, and teams could only use cooked or uncooked spaghetti and chemical adhesives. The towers were judged on height, mass, and their ability to hold at the top a one-half kilogram mass for a minimum of 20 seconds without collapsing, according to the event descriptions. WCHS ranked first in the Do-Ahead Project. The Plan-Ahead Event required teams to design and construct one to four edible musical instruments capable of playing the children’s song “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” according to the event descriptions. Judges gave points based on an inspection of the instrument, the ability of the performers to make the instruments accurately hit the necessary notes during a test, and the overall quality of the team’s performance. BCHS ranked first in the Plan-Ahead Event. The Communication/Calculation Challenge required the teams to split into two pairs. Two members of each team wrote down information on how to build specific molecules, and then the remaining pair of teammates had to accurately use that information to build models of the molecules. BGHS ranked first in the Communication/Calculation Challenge. The event descriptions stated the Fermi Questions portion of the competition consisted of an Order of Magnitude Quiz. Teams received 10 complex situations to answer within 15 minutes about the Order of Magnitude. BGHS ranked first in the Fermi Questions portion of the competition. Teams created food catapults at the end of the competition for the Impromptu Activity. The catapult had to be built within 20 minutes, and the teams were also required to launch candy projectiles into the target bowl within that time frame. Teams were judged based on their accuracy and ability to land the candy in the target area, and the candies were also worth different points. BCHS ranked first in the Impromptu Activity. Chris Chandler, planetarium coordinator, said all these events are accrued together to rank teams at the end of the competition. Only the team that ranked the highest overall received the four $1,000 scholarships. Chandler said the Physics Olympics is made to be accessible for students with a variety of interests. He said these interests also don’t necessarily have to be rooted in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. “It is underpinned by the principles of physics, but it’s not a test taking, math taking kind of quiz,” Chandler said. “There are other contests for that. This is intended to be accessible.” Chandler said the competition sometimes had 18 to 20 teams in the past before the coronavirus pandemic. The number of attending teams dropped after the pandemic, but he said that number should slowly start rising back up again. “There is a generation of kids that are young adults now who do want to get out and do things,” Chandler said. Cristen Olson, BGHS chemistry teacher, said she’s been bringing teams of students to the Physics Olympics for over 10 years. She said she had full confidence in her students. Sarah Pannell, 16-year-old BGHS student, said winning this competition furthered her goal in becoming an engineering major. “I think getting the experience to compete in a physics competition really helped me toward my major in seeing what I get to do with that,” Pannell said. Stockton Beasley Brown, 18-year-old BGHS student, said it felt great to win the competition. He said he and his teammates all take high-level courses, so it was nice to see the dividends of their hard work and what they can apply to the real world. Brown said his advice for future Physics Olympics competitors is to just have fun with teammates who will work hard. “Have fun definitely,” Brown said. “Be with people who you know will bring the team up, and you’ll get stuff done.”.
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Physics Olympics’ winners receive $1,000 scholarships
