Five ninth graders competed with the Middle School Science Team in the Science Olympiad held at Florida Atlantic University on February 25^th, 2012. These ninth graders include: Brigitte Blanco, Estie Gelmen, Kristina Nemeth, Gen Selden and Michael Varnerin. The Science Olympiad is a combination of fifteen events categorized in building and study. These events range from 30 to 45 minutes and teams compete against ten different schools that have 2 to 3 teams each. Building events require students to pre-make some type of figure, like a tower, and compete with these figures at the competition. These events test the students’ knowledge of various science topics. In preparation for these events, students stayed after school three times a week and studied and worked to understand their events. Events included: Write It Do It, Food Science, Disease Detectives, Experimental Design and Dynamic Planet.

In total, there were four 1^st place awards, six 2^nd place awards and three 3rd place awards. Every member on the team won an award for an individual event and nine members of the team won multiple awards. Pine Crest will now go on to compete at the State Competition on March 24, 2012 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. GO PINE CREST!