Science Olympiad Invitationals was held at Pembroke Hill School Jan. 11. The place was crowded with around 20-25 teams from across the nation. Unlike regionals and state, invitationals was just for practice.

“Several invitational competitions are always held in late first semester and early second semester, as a sort of practice for the actual regional, state and national tournaments,” member Aalee Khan (11) said . 

Although invitationals were meant to be practice, many students were still competitive. The environment was full of excitement but also nervousness. 

“Between each event and before the awards ceremony, everyone feels anticipation and nervousness,” Khan said. “The events that didn’t go well are stuck in our minds, thinking of all the ways we could have done better.”

To prepare for events, many spend hours creating reference sheets, building and making binders, but preparation differs for everyone based on what event they take.

“People can also practice the hands-on or lab portions of their events,” Khan said. “[In build events], students have to create and test several builds, which can take hours each week.”

Khan participated in three events which included Water Quality, Disease Detectives and Experimental Design. Compared to other competitions, she didn’t study as much, but since it determined the school ranking, she still had to put effort into it. 

“For Water Quality and Disease Detectives, I created ref sheets and took a lot of practice tests,” Khan said. “For Experimental Design, which consists of designing, conducting, and analyzing an experiment by writing a scientific report, I reviewed the rubric and did a sample write-up once independently.”