TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County Public Schools hosted its annual district-wide “Science Olympics” at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa on Saturday.
Kindergarteners through fifth graders faced each other in friendly engineering competitions, from marble roller coasters to marshmallow flyers.
What You Need To Know
Hillsborough County Public Schools hosted its annual district-wide “Science Olympics” at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa
More than 1,200 students from more than 130 schools participated
Each grade level had a different event based on school curriculum
Joshua and Miha are fourth graders at Essrig Elementary School. For a couple of weeks, they’ve been learning about energy and motion through marshmallow launchers.
“So we did the marshmallow launches cause it moves in position. It changes cause that’s how motion is, because motion changes directions where it goes,” Joshua said.
The students paired up and designed their own launchers out of cubes, paper cups and rubber bands.
“We created the cup with more tape than rubber bands so it would stick on really good and it wouldn’t fly away with the whole thing,” Miha said.
A marshmallow launcher created at Hillsborough County Schools’ “Science Olympics.” (Spectrum News)
To get to the “Science Olympics” competition, students had to have the farthest marshmallow launcher out of their grade in their elementary school.
“We were testing it out, and out of all the fourth grade, we got to, I think, eight meters,” Miha said.
More than 1,200 students from more than 130 schools participated in the engineering-themed challenges. Organizers said student engineers will use the skills they learned at the competition throughout their lives.
“So it becomes not just something I read in a textbook, but something I’m using in my life,” science coach Kristen Skinner said. “It really sets that foundational love of science and that understanding of why we learn in school and how it translates into real-life opportunities.”
All the participants also got a free ticket to the MOSI.