A group of keen science students at Sardis Secondary School won two gold medals and placed in the top 10 at a provincial competition recently.
Members of the school’s Science Club competed in the 46th annual Physics Olympics at the University of British Columbia. This year, 78 high schools from across the province were at the event on March 9 where they competed in eight different categories.
Sardis nabbed gold in two of the categories and placed sixth overall.
“We’d never even won an event in all the years we’ve travelled and we won two, so it’s a pretty amazing result for us,” said teacher Mike Lewis.
Each school can send up to 30 kids, but only a maximum of five students from a team can participate in any given event. The eight events include ‘Quizzics’ where kids answer questions about physics and astronomy, pre-build competitions where they demonstrate projects they made ahead of time, ‘Fermi’ questions, two mystery labs, and more.
There were about 10 to 15 Sardis kids who helped out with preparing for the Physics Olympics, and eight who went to UBC to compete.
The mystery lab that Sardis placed first in was called ‘The Sound of Science’: Exploring waves, interference, and vibration. The teens were given a kit with two wine glasses, a sponge, safety goggles and water.
Sardis had the ideal team as they had four band students on board, including Ben Friesen who grew up with a music background. For years, he’s studied music theory and how sound and frequency works.
“That was quite lucky when we had the lab that was pretty much centred around that – being able to know everything from the other end, and sort of knowing the answers before the lab even started,” he said.
One of the challenges in The Sound of Science was to create the biggest difference in sound without adding or removing water, and using only the supplies provided. Friesen had the idea of changing the volume of the liquid by putting the lab goggles into the glass to raise the water, therefore changing the pitch.
The other gold-medal event for Sardis was the Fermi questions. Named after famous physicist Enrico Fermi, the event was all about educated guesses.
The team didn’t score high in all of the categories, though.
There were two pre-build events where they brought a small solar car and a cooling device, both of which failed. They scored zero points for the solar car because they couldn’t get it running, and scored poorly on the other project after a cord, rated for 100 pounds, broke at 25 pounds.
“But we did excellence on those other two events and very well overall,” Lewis said.
Science Club president Selina Park has been with the group for four years, since Grade 9.
“In Science Club, I think one of the biggest advantages we have is we get to bring input from all the other people that are passionate about science,” she said.
Before they even started practising for the Physics Olympics, each member made a presentation about what they liked about science.
“Hearing different perspectives is what makes the club really good,” Park said.
She said the club has changed a lot over the four years she’s been involved, but one thing hasn’t changed.
“One thing that has always been constant is Mr. Lewis’ support,” Park said.
Even though he lets the teens take the reins and he calls himself a “hands-off” teacher when it comes to the Science Club, he’s always there when the students have questions or when they need supplies.
After competing in the Physics Olympics, the Sardis team packed up and left before the awards ceremony started and even before the results came in.
“We listened to it live in the car. We were watching the results as we were driving home,” Lewis said.
It was on the long drive back home when they found out they won two gold medals and placed sixth overall.
Lewis said in the seven years he’s been a teacher at Sardis, this was the first time they won and that he’s “super proud” of his students.
