Science Olympiad Allows Hands-On Learning

Students from all across the area, including Neligh-Oakdale, Clearwater, Orchard and Verdigre, made their way to Neligh last week for some hands on scientific learning.

ESU 8 hosted an elementary science olympiad on Thursday and Friday at the Neligh Legion. The event was open to fourth through sixth graders and was designed to give the students a chance to explore science and work on open-based problems in a fun way.

“The olympiad is a chance to give elementary kids the opportunity to explore science, be scientists and work on some inquiry-based problems,” said Heidi Rethmeier of ESU 8. “This year we have new science standards, so this was also a good opportunity to introduce both students and teachers to those.”

In total, there were 108 kids that took part in the olympiad. 58 were part of the day on Thursday while the other 50 had their time in Neligh on Friday.

There were a number of events on the day. Grain bin chemistry was a course that talked about the various processes that can occur and cause explosions within bins. Sink or float was essentially a game of educated guessing, where the students were challenged to determine whether an object would sink or not based on its density in relation the water’s density. Slow-motion science gave kids a chance to see scientific processes in slow-motion to get a better vision of the reactions occurring.