Sussex Academy students shine in first-time Science Olympiad showing

For the first time, Sussex Academy participated in the Delaware Science Olympiad at Cab Calloway School of the Arts March 1, with one team placing sixth in the Ecology event.

STEM teacher Tim Elmer advises the school’s new Science Olympiad club, which was launched by students Noah Benz, Matthew Perchiniak and Keenan Williams.

Matthew said he started looking into Science Olympiad after his father told him he participated in the event while a high school student.

“In researching it more, I thought it would be a good opportunity to bring it back to Sussex Academy,” Matthew said. “Keenan Williams, Noah Benz and I worked together to bring the team back with the significant help of Mr. Elmer as our coach.”

The hard work paid off, as Keenan and Matthew placed sixth in the Ecology event, which tested students on various topics including environmental policy, pollution and carbon cycle.

Other student finishes included Ben Steimel and Sarah Lester-Stranick, 12th in Disease Detectives; Natalia Gatti and Eva Navitskaya, 13th in Astronomy; Keenan Williams and Sarah Lester-Stranick, 13th in Forensics; Noah Benz and Owen Schrader, 15th in Geologic Mapping and 16th in Chem Lab; and Jack Thomas, 16th in Optics. Other notable finishers at the State Competition included George Sapna, Liam Stegall and Isabella Nguyen.

Students have already started to plan for next year’s competition and look forward to moving up the final rankings list, including adding building events to their schedule, Matthew said.

“This experience was a first for all students and me,” Elmer said. “Our students were very excited to participate and scope out the events for next year.” 

The team plans to hold future fundraisers to support the purchase of materials needed for next year’s build events.