A cacophony of laughter and speech is heard from room E-11 Wednesday after school by members of Science Olympiad. Over the course of the year, Science Olympiad goes to competitions and competes in various science-related subjects. In order to prepare, they play games to practice their knowledge.

Team bonding is a large aspect because the competitions and the club itself are meant to be a fun experience.

“This month we are mainly focusing on team bonding, so at the competitions, we aren’t bored and we’re there for fun and also to compete,” Emily Wharton said.

Winning is not their main focus. The experience of competing and making memories is enough for them, although winning wouldn’t be too bad. Members of the club strive to achieve a balance of fun and learning within the club.

“Friendship and personal discovery is important aspect with Science Olympiad,” Keri Chen said.

The club focuses on the experience and getting to know people who have similar interests.

“When we go to competitions it’s really cool to meet people from different places because you don’t get to do that normally,” Shannon Bone said.

Along with the common competition style, these events they participate in include having to travel and designing experiments. In order to practice for the trivia aspect they play a game called Killing Bill Nye, where one person names a factually correct incident that corresponds with science facts in order to kill Bill Nye, and another person must come up with a scientifically correct solution for Bill Nye to survive. If they don’t, then Bill Nye is dead. Another game style is the animation competitions.

“We played this game where we had to create an animation of a cat doing an action in a certain amount of time, and whoever makes the best wins,” Garron Moertle said.

Combined, these skills and memories last a lifetime. Overall, Science Olympiad members do not consider knowledge to be the most important aspect, but rather friends and memories.

By MARLEY SKY