Science Olympiad is Heading to State!

On March 8, 2025, Redwood’s Science Olympiad placed 1st in Regionals. They will now be competing for the state championship on April 5, 2025 at CSU East Bay. 

By: Liliana Madrigal

Hard work, dedication, and diligence culminated in the victory for Redwood High School’s Science Olympiad’s final Regional competition.

Sehrish Hirani, ‘27, the Director of Lab and Events, says, “Our Science Olympiad team hasn’t won 1st [place] since 2013.” 

“We ended up winning 1st place by 65 points, so we killed it,” says Mr. Austin Arruda, the advisor of Science Olympiad. 

Mr. Arruda prepared his team by having them do test-offs. Test-offs are simulated events in which members get the chance to test their knowledge about the topics. This paid off in the end because they were able to beat the other teams and secure the first place spot. 

Science Olympiad’s President Yong Lee, ‘26, says, “we averaged 3rd or 4th place in nearly every event, which helped us secure an overall 1st place finish by a significant margin.” 

Before they won their well-deserved placement in the competition, the team felt “nervous to see what type of competition University Preparatory High School (UPHS) was going to bring,” says Sophie Ceballes, ‘26, the club’s Vice President, “but after the competition, we were all feeling really great about going to state because we ended up beating UPHS this year.”

UPHS won Regionals last year, landing Redwood’s Science Olympiad team in 2nd place, which motivated the team to be even more competitive this year. 

To place high in state competitions and be the best the team can be, Lee says, “I want the team to view Regionals as a learning experience and focus on making improvements across the board. We’ll be refining our strategies, strengthening areas of relative weakness, and making sure everyone is as prepared as possible.” 

As the team continues to grow, they still need to push themselves and think about different strategies that they could use to succeed in the near future. 

Although the topics that the events will be on are given to teams in September, it proves to be challenging: “in general, I would definitely say the hardest event was one of the lab events, like chem lab or optics, because it’s not just taking a test. It’s being able to conduct a lab and doing research on how to do the labs properly, so that we can get the most amount of points possible,” says Hirani. 

Hirani mentions her event, Dynamic Planet. In her event, she had to use her knowledge about glaciers to pass the given test. She says, “For events like that it’s really hard because they expect you to know almost everything about different topics, so you need to be well prepared to take those tests.”

When asked if there were any obstacles that occurred, Ceballes says, “We kind of had a lack of resources. For example, in one of my events, Material Science, we actually didn’t even have proper lab coats. I had to use a disposable apron.” 

This is upsetting to hear and may have even led to a decrease in confidence for the participants, since they weren’t fully given the opportunity to use materials that they were already familiar with. 

Lee mentioned that time management was also a big obstacle that members had to face. Lee says, “balancing school, extracurriculars, and Science Olympiad preparation was challenging for many members, especially with multiple events to study for, and those people that had to prepare projects for build events.”

Mr. Arruda says they excelled in most of their events: “We placed 1st in air trajectory, we placed 1st in ophthalmology, and we placed 1st in code busters. Basically, we didn’t get lower than 7th place in any of our events.”

In order to place high in the state championship, Mr. Arruda says he plans to, “have 2 sessions every week to prepare for the competition, but mostly having some more review sessions. The nice thing about going to state is that it’s the same events, it’s just refining and working on those certain areas so that we feel more confident.”

Redwood’s Science Olympiad team is ready to take on their competitors at State. 

Lee says, “Regionals this year, upon reflection, was definitely a boost to team morale, and a reminder that our hard work paid off.”

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