The team from Pink Hill Elementary School gathers with its trophy after winning the 2022 LCPS Elementary Science Olympiad on Friday. The win was the school’s third in six years.

The team from Pink Hill Elementary School finished no lower than third in 14 of the 19 events in the 2022 LCPS Elementary Science Olympiad on Friday to win its third title in the six years of the district-wide tournament.

Northwest Elementary School finished second and Contentnea-Savannah, the host school, came in third. CSS tied for third overall with the teams from La Grange and Banks elementary schools but claimed the spot on the basis of total first-place finishes.

Northeast Elementary won the Spirit Award in a competition where spirit was in abundance. The energy and excitement and brow-furrowing focus of some 200 young competitors reflected the fact that this was the first fully in-person Science Olympiad tournament in the district in two years.

“Being able to bring students from all of our elementary schools together to compete in a face-to-face, traditional Science Olympiad tournament was so exciting,” Christel Carlyle, LCPS director of middle school education and the tournament’s lead organizer, said. “These students were energetic and enthusiastic about the competition, and there were so many smiles.”

Elementary Science Olympiad tests the knowledge of third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students through events that combine fun with an understanding of STEM – that is, science, technology, engineering and math. 

During the morning-long competition, students launched rockets, tested the strength of bridges they’d built out of pasta, fired marshmallows at targets from catapults they’d engineered, sleuthed out the chemical composition of secret compounds and bent into their iPads to answer questions on everything from meteorology to astronomy.

All nine elementary schools fielded teams and every school finished first, second or third in at least one event. In winning, Pink Hill students finished first in six events.

“Practice, practice, practice,” Betsy Mercer, a fifth-grade science and social studies teacher, said in sharing her team’s secret for success. Mercer and fellow teacher Selina Gray lead a coaching squad that includes third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers who coach specific events.

“Teachers pick events to coach that align with what is being studied in their curriculums,” Mercer said. “They look at things like grades, participation, cooperation, teamwork and reasoning skills when choosing students to participate.”

Practice for the 2022 competition began in earnest last December. “We have fun with it. We really have fun,” Gray said.

“We are very proud of all the hard work our students have put into studying for their events,” Mercer said. “Our students were so excited to win. A lot of them were third graders who have never had this experience before.”