A quiet flurry of activity was underway at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Campus Center Plaza on Saturday morning. High-schoolers guided robotic arms as they moved small items around a table. Middle-schoolers paced back and forth reading highlighted notes scribbled in composition books. Crowds gathered around pegboard boxes to watch Rube Goldberg contraptions in action, cell phones set to video mode.
Eight teams from around the island competed in the Hawaii Island Regional Science Olympiad, hoping to earn one of two spots in the statewide competition, to be held on Oahu next month.
Science Olympiads focus on developing both interest and skills in the four STEM subjects: Science, technology, engineering and math. Unlike science fairs, which showcase just one or two students’ efforts per project, the Olympiads spotlight an entire team.
“It’s about working together,” said Hilo Intermediate School teacher Cindy Fong, who has brought a team of students to the event since it first began six years ago. At the time it was hosted by ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center. UH-Hilo has hosted for the past four years.
Volunteer judges manned tables across the plaza and in classrooms across campus, where students put their knowledge of everything from rocks and minerals to forensics to the test.
“We love it,” Fong said. “It’s great for STEM, it’s great for the kids.”
The Hilo Intermediate team meets after school twice a week. But in anticipation of Saturday, they met every day for the past week.
“I have to kick them out at 5,” Fong said.
This year, Hilo Intermediate also sponsored entries for two other school participants. At Science Olympiad, the more the merrier.
Teams competed in the Division B (middle school) and Division C (high school) events.
Next year, the Hawaii Island Olympiad is expected to have Division A (elementary school) for the first time. The first elementary-only event is scheduled for next month.
That event’s organizer Leeann Ragasa, a fourth-grade teacher at Hilo Union School, first heard about Science Olympiad after her son joined Fong’s Hilo Intermediate team. She chaperoned a trip to the state tournament, and attended an elementary event on Oahu.
“I was mesmerized by the amazing science these tiny kids were doing,” she said. Ragasa returned from the trip hoping to build the same program on the Big Island.
“We hope that in the future we can encourage more schools to participate,” said regional event coordinator Sharon Ziegler-Chong.
West Hawaii Explorations Academy sophomores Lily Cho and Eli Dawson were at the Olympiad for the first time.
“Last year I saw all of my friends go, and it looked super fun,” Cho said. The West Hawaii team was up at 5 in the morning to make the trip from Kona.
Cho and Dawson had just finished demonstrating their entry into the Towers event. Their structure, which resembled a shortened radio tower, was built of thin wood slats with a wider-than-mandated base (to earn bonus points). The tower took six hours to build, Cho said.
It ended up supporting a load of 15 kilograms — just over 33 pounds — of sand, the maximum possible.
“The kids figure it all out on their own,” Fong said. Problem-solving is “something that’s really hard to teach. You just have to do it.”
Hilo Union School sixth graders Thea Saito and Kaiulani Rocha spent weeks planning their Mission Possible Rube Goldberg entry before they sat down to build it.
A spring triggered a cascade of dominoes, which dropped a weight that raised a see-saw to drop a weighted paper cup that lifted a barrier to send a Lego car down a ramp and hit a ruler, which triggered another set of weight-drops to finally raise a cardboard flag with “Rainbows” written on it in colored letters. The entire sequence took less than three seconds.
The girls tested their Mission Possible again and again before bringing it to the judging table.
“Do you feel like you’re ready?” Ragasa asked.
“One more time,” Rocha said. Then she and Saito set up the dominoes again, just to be sure.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.