The Science Olympiad (SciOly) team was able to compete in-person for the first time since 2020, on February 12.

Overall, members of the club were excited and relieved to compete in-person at Hauppauge High School. After time spent studying and preparing for the competition, it was much anticipated to finally compete for Commack.

“I had a pretty positive experience and I was finally able to display everything that I have done in the club at a competition and actually use my knowledge and building skills […] at a competition,”  said senior member of SciOly, Robin H.

Members of the club were able to reflect upon the difficulties of the past virtual competition. 

“We did all our events through online tests. [Last year], we had to fill out very specific directions or else everyone would have been disqualified, and that sort of impeded the whole fun of the event,” said senior member of SciOly, Harry P.

With last year’s virtual competition, students and their partners were participating from home, making it challenging to collaborate.

“I was able to work with someone [this year], but when I was online, I was working all by myself, [making it] difficult because you don’t get another perspective about the questions,” said freshman member of SciOly, Karen P.

Many members prefer in-person settings.

“Competitions like these are so much better in person. It really enforces that element of togetherness which you need in a competition where people have to work together,” said junior member of SciOly, Juliette A.

Another reason why members were excited to get back to a normal competition is because of the lack of regulation during virtual competition. Even though some schools got advantages over having more studying resources than in normal years, having no regulations meant that the people with academic integrity were at a disadvantage.

“It was obvious that people were cheating when schools that traditionally get 30th place all of a sudden get 1st place, […] but that was all resolved at our in-person setting this year,” said Robin H.

This year’s competition fostered team unity. 

“Even though we didn’t make it to [the state competition], it was still a good experience to unite with other schools [and] other students over our appreciation for the sciences,” said Juliette A.

Members of the club now hope to make it to the state competition next year, which is reached by placing as a school at the regional competition. Additionally, many senior members are ecstatic that their last year of Science Olympiad had a normal competition.

“I was happy to go to this year’s competition […] and I hope that in the future that same level of passion for Science Olympiad stays with the Commack team,” said Harry P.🔳