By Addison Schwing – Staff Reporter

The Jonathan Law Science Club is preparing to partake in the MIT Science Olympiad Invitational on January 12, 2019.

The Science Club is an academic club that participates in science-oriented events across New England. They spend the majority of their time preparing for the Connecticut Science Olympiad, a statewide science-based competition held at the University of Connecticut wherein students form teams and complete a multitude of science-based competitions.

Senior Ming-May Hu acts as Club President, and Ms. Turcotte and Mr. Stanton from the Science Department advise the club.

This year, the Science Club will be participating in the Science Olympiad Invitational at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Ms. Turcotte cites the location as a change of pace for the club.

“Normally we would do Yale University, but in the past, we’ve done Brown University, and we’re doing MIT this year,” Turcotte said. “The nice thing about going to MIT is that it’s out-of-state, so there are lots of people traveling from all over the country, whereas the UConn event is just Connecticut exclusively. It gives us more variety.”

The event at MIT is an invitational, and the actual Olympiad takes place at the University of Connecticut; however, the invitational is modeled after the official event.

Hu said that the club has worked hard in preparation for the event.

“There are multiple events [during the Olympiad], and everyone has a few of them, and everyone prepares on their own,” she said. “It’s kind of like an independent study sort of thing. Depending on the event, there could be a test so you would have to study anatomy for example, and people will go to different teachers for help, or you might have to build a tower that has to hold a certain amount of weight so you would have to keep doing trials.”

Participants are under a lot of pressure to perform well during the event.

The competition lasts from the morning to the evening and is composed of a gauntlet of challenges with different themes, such as Chemistry, Thermodynamics, Forensics, and Herpetology.

Turcotte expects students to show up prepared to the event.

“There have been years where people haven’t shown up prepared, and especially with new members, they don’t know what to expect, and when you show up and see these kids carrying all their equipment in and are prepared, and you aren’t then it’s stressful,” Turcotte said. “Of course, we want to win medals, and we want to do well overall, but the most important thing is that they prepare and that they pull their weight with their team so that they have a chance of being successful.”