Stuyvesant Science Olympiad Team Soars to Nationals

Stuyvesant’s Science Olympiad (SciOly) team competed in the New York State Science Olympiad State Tournament at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, from March 21 to March 22. They earned a second-place finish, securing one of our Division’s 60 tickets to the national competition in Lincoln, Nebraska, for the first time in Stuyvesant's 29 years of participating in the competition. This also makes Stuyvesant the first-ever New York City team to qualify for the Division C (high school) National Tournament, a historical milestone for both the school and the city.

Science Olympiad is a nationwide STEM competition with 23 different events split into two categories. Study events focus on prior knowledge with students preparing to take rigorous exams that can often contain over 100 multiple-choice questions. These events include Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, Dynamic Planet, and Astronomy. Meanwhile, build and tech events are more hands-on, requiring students to construct devices and models, conduct experiments, and perform tasks. These include Electric Vehicle, Helicopter, Robot Tour, Tower, Chem Lab, Forensics, and Optics. 

Throughout the year, the SciOly team competed at smaller invitationals hosted by top colleges in the Northeast region. Placing well at these competitions helped prepare them for the New York City South Regional Tournament, where they achieved a first-place finish, bringing home a total of 53 medals across all the events. Thus qualifying for states, SciOly achieved a historic second-place finish with a record total score of 173 points.

SciOly attributes its state tournament success to strong performances at smaller regional tournaments at Ivy league colleges. In tournaments at Brown, Yale, Cornell, UPenn, and Columbia, the team finished in the top five every time, with Yale and Brown being the highest placement in an invitational competition ever, beating multiple top National teams. “I think it’s just our overall placements because we’ve been doing really well compared to last year. We broke a few records at Yale and Brown,” said sophomore and Team Coordinator Eshmam Ahmed. 

This year’s qualification for Nationals marks a turning point for Stuyvesant’s Science Olympiad team. In nearly three decades of competition, the team has never advanced this far. “Personally, I didn’t really expect [the placement because] we had a bunch of minor inconveniences beforehand, but when it actually happened, it was a very surreal moment. It was very exciting,” junior and Physics Captain Cody Cai said. 

The qualification for Nationals was somewhat unexpected, but the team had been closely tracking the scores and giving the competition their all. “I was really happy, and we were keeping track of all the scores of other schools and ourselves. We knew, generally, that we were probably going to win or get second. But we didn’t know [for sure] until third place was called,” junior and Electric Vehicle and Robot Tour Event Leader Checed Ligh said. 

SciOly’s recent success can be credited to a surge in student participation. Although not everyone could attend States due to limited competition spots, the collective effort of all members helped prepare the selected few for competition. “Throughout the entire year, we were definitely a lot better and more consistent, and I think it’s because we had a lot more people. We advertised more in the beginning of the year, and we brought in a lot of new people. It made it easier, but also harder because we had to organize all those new people,” Ligh said. 

The team’s thorough preparation for Nationals is similar to the training that led up to States. “As for the build events, we showed up almost every single day testing, redesigning, and retesting our builds until 6:30 p.m. leading up to States,” senior and Engineering Captain Michelle Ng said. “There was no specific secret, we just had to show up.” Past competitions played a role in gauging the performance of competitors, which helped the team ensure their builds were competitive.

In preparation for this year’s States competition, the members devoted more time to studying than they did last year, with some believing that this extra time helped them perform as well as they did. “I think we also practiced a lot more this year in the weeks leading up to our States competition and that extra practice definitely paid off. The team was also composed of many more experienced members so I think that helped overcome the pressure during the competition,” Zhang said. 

Time management was a crucial factor in balancing training with schoolwork. “I usually just do a lot of my paper homework on my commute to save time and study for my exams until late hours,” Ng explained. “I think it’s worth it though, because competitions at the end of the week, [on Saturday], are like a reward.” 

The construction aspect of some events in SciOly involved significant trial and error, but the team remained committed to refining their creations with each competition. “Before states, we made a new robot tour, but the new robot tour was worse than the old one. Basically, we made a lot of things that were worse than the first builds. But then, we took the electronics which were better, slapped it on the old build and then it was better,” Ligh said.

In addition to the challenge of having to skillfully construct the robots and vehicles that would be presented at the competition, the team faced technical setbacks that required quick-thinking and creative problem solving. “The old electronics were super iffy, and everything kept dying on us, like the motor drivers, there were just a bunch of problems, so I had to take it [the robot for the competition] home,” Ligh said.

The road to Nationals qualification was not straightforward; there were moments when the challenges during preparation impacted SciOly’s performance in competition. “I took the build home and tried to make it work. I tried to fix and started taking stuff apart and then I couldn’t put it back together, so we had no build for regionals. [We] had to use the old build, and Brooklyn Tech swept us,” Ligh said.

Science Olympiad’s head coach, Assistant Principal of Supervision Scott Thomas, along with coaches and AP Environmental Science teachers Jerry Citron and Stephen McCllelan and chemistry teacher Kristen Pluchino implemented new policies that helped the teams prepare more effectively than in previous years. “Mr. Thomas is always there in the lab providing us with materials and advice, and he helps take care of ordering all of our materials. He also supervises every trip and has been extremely helpful,” sophomore Andrew Zhang said. 

With the National tournament approaching, the team is ramping up its preparation. Members are dedicating more study hours, refining their projects, and pushing for the best possible results. “When I get home, all I do is either study for a test the next day or study for the Science Olympiad,” Cai said. “Just the same schedule of states, just grinding every day and not sleeping.”

Even with the pressure of performing at the national level, team members remain focused and confident in their goals. “For Nationals, I really want to get at least one medal. And I want this team to get the best new team award, which is awarded to the best team that is at its first National. We have a bunch of [outside] competition for that, but I think we can do it.” Cai said.

With Nationals approaching, logistics and finances have emerged as new challenges for the team. “We’re figuring out if we’re taking a bus or a plane, how to transport all our materials, and how to cover costs,” Ahmed said. “Since we’re a National team now, a lot of sponsors are going to be looking at us. Hopefully, we can get some support.”

The team’s dedication is clear as they continue preparing for their most important competition yet. Their hard work and passion for science stands to show what students can achieve when they combine commitment with a shared love for science. Looking ahead, the team encourages students of all grades to get involved—even seniors. “We're open to any grade, even if you’re a senior. We had some great seniors join for their first year and perform well, really well,” Cai said. “Stay committed to the team; go to the lessons that we have at the start of the year.”

Despite the stress levels that inevitably come with competing to qualify for Nationals, SciOly’s members continued to support each other and stay motivated throughout the tournament. “We celebrated throughout the whole thing. Everytime we won an award for an event and everytime a competing school didn’t medal in an event, we realized that really improved our chances and we were excited,” Ligh said.

Even with months of preparation ahead, motivation is high. “Qualifying for Nationals has always been the big goal for us, and after attending many invitationals this year, we realized that we actually had a good chance this year of making it,” Ng said. “Much of our team being composed of seniors, we really wanted to give it our all for our last year. The entire team showing up every day also motivated each other to stay, because when other people are working hard, it kind of pushes you to as well.”