After being named the best new team at last year’s regional competition, Coupeville High School’s Science Olympiad participants are striving to maintain their reputation. Though competing against much larger schools like 4A Bothell and 3A Camas, the team was able to snag two first place finishes at a Feb. 5 invitational in Seattle.

“The kids are showing initiative to do extra work, and a lot of these students have great potential,” adviser Dan d’Almeida said.

Science Olympiad was founded in 1983 by teachers Dr. Gerard Putz and Jack Cairns as a means to supplement children’s science education. The country’s 200,000-plus participants study topics ranging from astronomy to anatomy to forensics and wind power with coaches after school and then compete against other schools through written tests or physical activities.

D’Almedia believes that his team has one of the best coaching staffs in the state because the island is crawling with knowledgeable retirees and volunteers who have the time to share their expertise with the kids.

For example, in the two events that earned d’Almeida’s students’ firsts, ecology and remote sensing, the teams were coached by volunteers Dr. Joe Sheldon, a former distinguished professor of biology and environmental science at Eastern University and Messiah College, and Jarrett Cerise who is stationed at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

And d’Almeida himself has a pretty impressive resume. Before becoming a teacher at CHS, he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and spent nearly 20 years in high-tech fields working for Hewlett-Packard and Eastman Kodak. Through Science Olympiad, he aims to give students interested in science access to valuable resources that they may not be able to seek out on their own.

The Coupeville Science Olympiad team is made up of 18 boys and girls coming from all grade levels. Junior Rachael Parker has been on the team since it began last year. Though she secured a first place in remote sensing along with teammate Nate Foote, she said her favorite event is ornithology, which is the study of birds.

“I have a few parrots, and I have a friend that has like 12, so I’m around birds a lot,” Parker said.
Parker joined Science Olympiad because she enjoys learning about all of the different topics and said she hopes to pursue a career in forensic science after graduation.

Senior Mike Waterman joined because he’s passionate about science and thought his experience on the team would help him get into college this fall. He’s taken biology and chemistry at the high school and is currently enrolled in calculus and physics. He said it’s easy to apply lessons from the classroom to his Science Olympiad projects.

Recently Waterman spent nine and a half hours building a wooden structure for the towers competition at this month’s invitational. In the towers contest, the structures must cover a certain area and manage to hold a certain weight.

“I apply my knowledge of physics to draw out models in my notebook so I can test them out logically before I test them physically,” he said.

The team members will spend the next few weeks preparing for the regional competition, which will be held March 12 in Seattle.