Young scientists from 18 middle and high schools in Western North Carolina will test their talents at the ninth annual Science Olympiad Tournament on Saturday, March 15. The competition will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the UNC Asheville campus.

Each team can field a group of 18 students in 48 events ranging from bottle rockets and airplanes to robots and architecture. Among the day's highlights will be the new "Trajectory" event where students will build and test large slingshots.

About 130 volunteers, including UNC Asheville faculty, staff and students, as well as volunteers from North Carolina State University Engineering Programs, Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center, Western North Carolina Nature Center, and the Colburn Earth Science Museum, will staff the Olympiad.

Competing Buncombe County middle schools are A.C. Reynolds, Asheville, Cane Creek, Charles D. Owen, Clyde A. Erwin, North Buncombe, and Valley Springs. Participating Buncombe County high schools are A.C. Reynolds, Charles D. Owen and North Buncombe. Additional Buncombe County teams will be fielded from Carolina Day School and Evergreen Community Charter School.

Other Western North Carolina competitors include Chase Middle School, Harris Middle School, Polk County high school and middle school, Smoky Mountain High School, and The Mountain Community School.

An awards ceremony will be held at 3:45 p.m. in UNC Asheville's Lipinsky Auditorium. The winners of the regional tournament will move on to the statewide tournament later this year.

For more information, call UNC Asheville's Physics Department at 828/251-6442.


Note to Media: The competition offers a host of photographic opportunities.

Walk-in events:

The following are "walk-in" events with contestants only needing to show up during the designated time frame. Sorry, we cannot predict when the most students will be competing.

• 9:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. – Students will make rubber-band-propelled airplanes in the Flying Bird event in the Health and Fitness Center Gymnasium; Bottle Rocket Building in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 129A; Sounds of Music event featuring student-made instruments in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 323; and Trajectory event in Lipinsky Hall lobby.

• 12:30-3 p.m. – Electric Vehicle event in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 105; Boomilever Building event in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 125; Junk Yard Challenge in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 131; Balloon Launch Glider event in Lipinsky Hall Lobby; students test their robots in the Robo-Cross event in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 239; and Bottle Rocket Blast Off on the Quad.

Scheduled events:

The following are scheduled events. Competitors are required to show up at the start time and participate until the end of the event.

• 9:15-10:15 a.m. – Crave the Wave event in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 123 and Forensics event in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 242.

• 10:30-11:30 a.m. – Science Crime Busters in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 242 and Remote Sensing in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 207.

• 1-2 p.m. – Mystery Architecture event in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 141 and Food Science in Rhoades-Robinson Hall room 243.