More than 900 Students from Three States Compete in Science Olympiad at UW-River Falls

January 29, 2015—More than 900 students representing 33 high schools from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota competed in the annual Science Olympiad competition at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls on Jan. 24. The 61 teams competed in all 23 National Science Olympiad events as well as the five trial events from Wisconsin. 

A team from Mounds View (Minn.) High School took top honors in the large team competition with teams from Wayzata (Minn.) High School and Menomonie High School placing second and third respectively. Medford Area Senior High won the small team competition, followed by teams from Boyceville and Shell Lake high schools. 

UW-River Fallls hosts the tournament to provide an opportunity for the students to hone their skills before they compete in Science Olympiad regional tournaments.

"We want to encourage and support enthusiasm for studying science, as well as showcase UWRF as a destination location for studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)," said Earl Blodgett, tournament director and physics professor at UW-River Falls. 

The events were supervised by UWRF faculty, staff, alumni and current students. "Although we have nice facilities, it is our people that make us special," said Blodgett. 

Information about the tournament and a list of the participating schools is available at https://www.uwrf.edu/PHYS/olympiad/index.cfm. Full results of the tournament will be posted to the same site in the coming days. 

For further information on the UW-River Falls Science Olympiad tournament, contact Blodgett at 715-425-3196 or earl.d.blodgett@uwrf.edu.