March 02, 2014 12:00 AM
STOCKTON - Baking soda bubbled and light bulbs lit up along with the neurons in hundreds of young brains Saturday at the 28th annual San Joaquin County Regional Science Olympiad.
The daylong event was held at University of the Pacific and was followed by an awards ceremony at the Scottish Rite Auditorium. Forty-eight high school and middle school teams competed in 23 events.
One of the more fascinating events was Mission Possible, a Rube Goldberg Machine contest that requires students to build a complex machine to perform a simple task, in this case illuminating a light bulb. This year students were asked to construct devices with mechanical, chemical, electrical, electromagnetic and thermal energy transfers, said Wes Huffman, a retired teacher from Williams Middle School in Tracy who judged the contest.
"This particular event is the one where the rubber meets the road and you learn more when it doesn't work," Huffman said. "Even if you've been here five times and never won anything, you're still a winner because of the huge amount of knowledge you gain from the experience. You get back up off the ground, start over again and get better at it, because every time you participate, you become better. That's a win."
Merrill West High School's Gold team - made up of freshman Madhusha Goonesekera and junior Effie Nehoran - took first place in the C division with a machine that featured baking soda, vinegar and sand. Their device completed each of the required tasks without manual manipulation, something most teams struggled to achieve, Huffman said.
"When we were testing it, we had to use a touch now and then, which would have deducted 15 points," Goonesekera said. "We didn't want that, so seeing it all work was really nice.
"I've been doing Mission Possible for three or four years. It's really interesting, because you have so many options, and it's up to you to decide the best ones to get the best conclusion. It's an event of trial and error, and even though that can get frustrating at times, the end result is always great."
Nehoran agreed.
"There were a lot of obstacles on the way, but even though things didn't always work when we expected them to, we worked through it and we figured out what we did wrong and we continued until it all worked," she said.
Winning teams were awarded medals and plaques were presented to the top five teams in each division, event organizers said. Four $100 grants were given in each division for the purchase of science supplies.
The top four teams in the B and C divisions qualified for the NorCal State Finals, which will be held April 12 in Turlock.
Contact reporter Jason Anderson at (209) 546-8279 or janderson@recordnet.com. Follow him at www.recordnet.com/crimeblog or on Twitter @Stockton911.
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