Los Gatos High School Students Shine at Science Olympiad

Rather than spend a dreary Saturday indoors playing Xbox or watching television, students tested wind turbines, flew helicopters and saw how their scientific minds stacked up against peers from around the Bay Area.

The Los Gatos students were among hundreds of area high-schoolers and middle-schoolers who participated in the Bay Area Regional Science Olympiad at Foothill High School. They did everything, from performing experiments, engineering small rubber-band-powered helicopters, testing wind turbines and competing in several other events.

Competition director Mike McKee said more students are getting involved in the annual event. It has grown from 12 school teams three years ago to about 43, totaling 400-500 students, he said. Teams vie for gold, silver and bronze medals in each event.

“It’s fun; it is outright fun,” McKee said. “The kids are just very excited about it.”

Los Gatos seniors Darren Hau and Aaron Selfridge teamed up to design and build a wind turbine for the olympiad’s wind power event. Hau and Selfridge said they were participating in three events.

“We knew it had to be as light as possible,” Selfridge, 17, said. “Part of this is a test of how much you are willing to work.”

The two teens came up with a three-bladed cardboard design to test in front of a fan set at slow speed and a fan set at a high speed. Participants’ wind turbines were connected to a computer to measure how much power each design produced as it spun.

“It’s definitely fun,” Hau, 17, said. “It’s a good chance to learn.”

Many participants said one thing they liked about doing the experiments is that it gave them better hands-on experience than reading a textbook.

“You got to have a fundamental understanding of science in order to do this,” McKee said. “Learning out of a traditional textbook doesn’t engage the students in the same way.”