The second quarter is nearing its end, and with the new quarter will come a new season for the high school’s Science Olympiad team. For months, the team has been studying and preparing for the spring competitions, but as winter break draws nearer, the group has been working harder than ever.

The areas of study change every few years, so each year, just as much preparation, if not more, is needed to succeed as in previous years. Some of the new areas of interest this year include: Game On, which involves coding a game; Hydrogeology; Protein Modeling, where participants build a large-scale model of a protein molecule; and even Electric Vehicle building.

The first of the three invitationals will be at Kenston High School on January 16th, followed by invitationals at Solon and Mentor. If the Stow team does well in these invitationals, it will move on to the Regional Competition at the University of Akron. From there, it may get a chance to move on to the state competition in Columbus, Ohio at The Ohio State University campus.

The high school’s team has gone to states for the past two years, though it has never made it to nationals, so the team members are looking forward to doing as good a job this year. Who knows; maybe this is the year the team will move on to nationals.