Students compete at Engineering and Science Olympics

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/EngSciOlmpics08.jpg” caption=”Nearly 1,000 students from 48 Ontario high schools put their engineering and science knowledge and abilities to the test at the 20th annual Engineering and Science Olympics held on Thursday, October 15. File photo.”]Nearly 1,000 students from 48 Ontario high schools put their engineering and science knowledge and abilities to the test at the 20th annual Engineering and Science Olympics held on Thursday, October 15.

Canadian rower Melanie Kok, bronze medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, helped kick the day off with a welcome outside of the John Hodgins Engineering building. Kok is a graduate student in the MiNDS neuroscience program at McMaster.

The day included the opportunity to build a robot and competitions such as the egg high jump and physics paper triathlon, as well as chemical forensics, photonic puzzles, a mechanical transporter competition and mathematical mental gymnastics.

Students competed for more than $20,000 in McMaster tuition entrance prizes, awarded to the day's winning teams.

Students also learned about engineering and science at an open house featuring departmental displays and demonstrations organized through Let's Talk Science, VidaLAB, the W.C. McCallion Planetarium, and the McMaster Museum of Art, and engineering student Kyla Fisher spoke about her summer work experience in Ghana with Engineering Without Borders.

The students' teachers were also put to the challenge in a lunch-hour competition where they competed for up to $1,500 in tuition prizes for their students.

For more information, se the Engineering and Science Olympics website.