Eight WHS Science Olympiad members medal

Green takes the gold in anatomy

WORLAND — Worland High School Science Olympiad member Tate Green took first place at the state tournament in anatomy and physiology.

Coach Karen Grzybowski said Green’s category was a “challenging lab practical.”

Green led a strong team with six groups medaling at the competition in Casper on Saturday.

Grzybowski said, “This year’s Science Olympiad team had the best showing yet. Eight of our 11 members placed in the top three for their events and our team score was lower than it has been in the past. Just like golf, the lower the score, the better they performed.”

In addition to green other medal winners were:

Silver/Second: Dawson Utterback in green generation;

Ira Croft, Noah Mitchell and Scottie Thomas and experimental design. Grzybowski said they worked together cohesively to design, test and statistically analyze the results of their experiment.

Croft and Ivan Thomas in ping pong parachute;

Canton Green and Jackson Richard in trajectory. “They impressively hit the bullseye from over seven meters away launching a ping pong ball from their homemade catapult,” Grzybowski said.

Bronze/third: Thomas, Mitchell and Utterback in code busters. Grzybowski said the sophomore team are becoming strong decoders. “I am looking forward to seeing how far they progress in the next two years.

“Science Olympiad is not so much about earning medals, it is about engaging in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM),” Grzybowski said.

Other placers on Saturday are as follows:

4th place: It’s About Time - Amiee Dyer, Elizabeth Leach; Disease Detectives- Deanna Lockwood, Amiee Dyer; Bridge - Canton Green, Amiee Dyer; Wright Stuff -Ivan Thomas, Dawson Utterback; Gravity Vehicle - Noah Mitchell, Jackson Richard 

5th place: Ornithology- Elizabeth Leach, Ivan Thomas; Cell Biology- Tate Green

6th place: Write It, Do It - Ira Croft, Noah Mitchell; Rocks & Minerals - Scottie Thomas, Amiee Dyer

Grzybowski said, “Elizabeth Leach and Amiee Dyer showed great perseverance building a non-electronic timing device. Even though their device broke during the competition, these students have shown their potential for science and engineering.

“Deanna Lockwood and Amiee Dyer learned how the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identify disease threats, try to prevent the spread of diseases, and how they work to control disease outbreaks.

“Canton Green and Amiee Dyer worked through the engineering cycle for months before the competition. They built a lightweight bridge and tested it until it broke to see how much weight it could hold. Then they refined and rebuilt a new bridge for competition. Just like many engineering projects, their new bridge did not work out as expected at competition and broke early. Given more time to retest and rebuild (just as engineers do) I am confident that they will have an even better bridge next year.”

She added, “I am so proud of all of our Worland High School Science Olympiad students. These students have met weekly during lunch hour to plan, come in during our Orange period (study hall) to work on their events, and spent countless hours outside of school time preparing on their own to compete. They are all capable and resilient people. It’s an honor to work with them. With 10 of the 11 team members returning next year (we only have one senior this year), we will continue to see great strides in STEM.