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State Science Champs!
 The Thurmont Middle School Science Olympiad team of 15
students became the state champions at the Maryland Science Olympiad on Saturday, April 9, and boy are they excited, says the team's head coach and science teacher Jason O.L.
Johnson, "Mr. J" for short. Using their school initials, TMS, the students call their team the Total Masters of Science and look forward to representing Maryland in the national
tournament next month in Washington, DC.
For nearly 25 years, the Science Olympiad has pursued its mission to promote and improve student interest in science and to improve the quality of
k-12 science education throughout the nation. It's a mission that is certainly working for the champions at Thurmont Middle, who are especially thrilled about this victory. It's the
school's first year in the competition.
On the team are 8th graders Megan Coblentz, Lexi Daniels, Abbey Drescher, Abby Ewing, Caroline Grosweiler, Ashley Robichaud, Chris Vaughn and Julio
Valcarcel; 7th graders Kati Fox, Kristen Hoffman, Morgan Smith and Nick Wotring; and 6th graders Courtney Scott, Sam Swanson and Tori Valcarcel. Assistant coaches are Brook Green,
Susan Mize and Von Mosser.
According to the Science Olympiad's Web site, http://www.soinc.org, teamwork is a required skill in most scientific careers today, and much like a
football or soccer team, competitive science teams prepare throughout the year for tournaments. The competition consists of a series of 23 team events in each division. Each year, a
portion of the events are rotated to reflect the ever-changing nature of genetics, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, astronomy, mechanical engineering and
technology. Combining events from all disciplines encourages a wide cross-section of students to get involved, adding that with more than 5,000 middle and high schools participating
each year plus coaches, teachers, parents and expert judges, the Olympiad reaches more than two million people each year.
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