Wilkes-Barre

Wilkes-Barre to host Northeast Regional Science Olympiad on March 8

LEHMAN, Pa. — Penn State Wilkes-Barre will host the 2017 Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Science Olympiad competition on Wednesday, March 8, with snow dates of March 9 and 10.

Science Olympiad is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of science education, creating a technologically literate workforce, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science and technology. It brings fun, standards-based challenges to student participants, and is backed with 32 years of experience at the local, state and national levels.

Science Olympiad objectives are to bring science to life, to expose students to real-life challenges, to make science education more exciting and fun, and to attract more students to careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and science education/teaching.

More than 800 middle and high school students from 31 school districts from as far as Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, to the New York and New Jersey border will take part in the day’s events, beginning with registration at 8 a.m. and concluding with an awards ceremony at 4:30 p.m. More than 30 different activities will be held throughout the day in the areas of science and engineering. Students will participate in events featuring astronomy, bottle rockets, food science, forensics, hovercrafts, robotics, and wind power. Various other disciplines will also be included. 

The winners of both the junior and senior high teams will advance to the state competition at Juniata College in April.

As part of the day’s activities, and to promote STEM awareness, events will be streaming live from several campus facilities. This will allow parents and students who are unable to take part in the activities on campus the opportunity to experience the 2017 Science Olympiad.

Media packets will be available on site in Hayfield House. Official results will be released after the awards ceremony.

Last Updated February 7, 2017