Last month, our middle school students logged another award winning performance at the regional North Carolina Science Olympiad. Science Olympiad and its rigorous academic interscholastic competitions are designed to “attract and retain the pool of K-12 students entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”  For the last 10 years, Angie Pleasant, middle school science teacher, has headed up this program at MGCS.  This year, she and 4^th grade math and science teacher, Mrs. Sciales, expanded Science Olympiad at MGCS by including a small group of 4^th and 5^th grade students. Mrs. Sciales and Mrs. Pleasant explained their enthusiasm for expanding this program at MGCS.

Science Olympiad enhances science classes at MGCS.  Angie Pleasant feels that Science Olympiad enriches her classroom.  “It exposes me to new ideas and gives me opportunities to continue learning and exploring.  The experiments, projects, and activities we conduct very often leak over into the classes I teach.  The 7^th grade water quality field study and the 6^th grade bottle rocket building project grew out of Science Olympiad experiments.”

The activities, projects, and experiments increase student engagement in scientific learning.   Students are given the opportunity to dive deeper into topics and concepts that interest them.   These STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities give students additional hands on experience in  scientific study.  Mrs. Sciales hopes that extending Science Olympiad into the the lower school will engage girls in particular.  This interaction will ignite a passion for science that will develop in high school and college and, consequently, decrease the deficit of women in science-related careers.

An academically rigorous study of science leads students to a deeper understanding of their Creator.   “I’m intentionally investing in this program as I hope it will ultimately produce more Christian scientists,”  says Mrs. Sciales.  She goes on to say, “Isaac Newton was a man who intently studied scripture and is arguably one of the most influential scientists of all time.  I believe that a scientific mind in conjunction with a heart bent on seeking God can unlock scientific mysteries and open eyes to see beyond what is normally observable.  I think God is pleased to reveal himself to those who seek him and scientific study can be a vehicle to do just that.”

On May 16, eighteen of our 4^th and 5^th Grade Science Olympians will head to Ashley High School to compete against teams from 17 other New Hanover County schools.  “I’m a very competitive person, but win or lose, there will be a lot of fun and a lot of learning!”