CLARK, NJ — Carl H. Kumpf Middle School’s Science Olympiad team is celebrating their incredible achievement of second place against 18 other schools at the NJIT Regional Tournament on Wednesday, Jan. 7, becoming a top school to compete at the state tournament. According to soinc.org, “Founded in 1984, Science Olympiad is the premier team STEM competition in the nation, providing standards-based challenges to 6,000 teams at 425 tournaments in all 50 states.”
The students on the team prepared for many weeks to compete in Science and Engineering competitions. This includes building and testing events such as Boomilever, Circuit Lab, Codebusters, Helicopter, Mission Possible, Scrambler and more. Preparation, building, testing, data-taking and studying all took place during and after school in the science and art classrooms. Many hours were spent dedicated to consulting with coaches and working hard to prepare for the regional competition.
Coaches and Kumpf teachers Joe Rodriguez, Annemarie Lamberti, Andrew Calo and Thomas Peitz attended the Regionals at NJIT with the Kumpf Science Olympiad team. After the events, the coaches and the team felt confident that they did well and were eager to await the results from the Science Olympiad judges.
Kumpf’s team was awarded the following:
- gold medals in two events: Disease Detectives and Meteorology;
- silver medal in one event: Write It Do It;
- bronze medals in three events: Boomiliever, Entomology, and Rocks and Minerals; and
- students placed in the top five in eight out of the 12 events.
This places Kumpf Middle School in second overall, the best Kumpf has achieved in the team’s history starting in 2008.
Joe Rodriguez, science teacher and lead coach, said, “The unity and work ethic of this group have been truly outstanding. Seeing the results of their dedication is a source of pride for all of us. It’s an honor to work with such a passionate and dedicated team of students.”
Annemarie Lamberti, science teacher and coach, said, “The students dedicated countless hours preparing for their events,and it was incredibly rewarding to see their hard work recognized. Beyond their achievements, they demonstrated unwavering support for one another, making us coaches extremely proud to have them represent Kumpf at this competition!”
Andrew Calo, math teacher and coach, said, “Being a new coach to Science Olympiad this season, it has been truly astonishing to see how these students have not stopped working toward their goal since back in October. It is clear that all of their hard work has paid off. If they continue this process, I see great success in our future.”
Thomas Peitz, art teacher and coach, said, “When the team started preparing a few months ago, the different groups got together and jumped right into planning and building. They continued to persevere through the tough times of preparation; however, after the results came out, I still feel that the biggest reward was seeing the joy in their eyes as they realized that the hard work was worth it.”
The New Jersey Science Olympiad State Tournament will be at Middlesex College in March.
The following students participated: Maya Jajszczyk, Kaja Hajduk, Ciro Cutrona, Leon Li, Dakota Burkert, Suhani Shah, Gabriel Cai, Gretchen Kihm, Fiona Genova, Justin Syntscha, Ronnie Miller, Jake Gerstner, Austin Rishko, Rosanna Cutrona, Cashlyn Kaverick, Rimona Richard, Viviane Naber, Cassy Le, Esha Marvania, Mason Kihm and Jake Miller.
Photos Courtesy of Christine Casale Broski
