Science Olympiad is considered a club at Ripon High School. The club advisor is Mr. Ruhland who is a teacher in our science department. This group of driven students spends all year picking out the events they will participate in and studying for their best performance. Science Olympiad is something that takes up a lot of time and is completely optional.
Competitors volunteer to compete and test their knowledge of various fields of science. The Science Olympiad Event was on Saturday March 7, 2020 and is composed of multiple events for the high schools. This year, our school was competing against 21 others. Mr. Ruhland explains what his favorite part of mentoring these students is.
“This is kind of new and has changed since last time I did it. I guess my favorite part of Science Olympiad is having students enjoy learning more science and competing in science so it is a little more of a fun side of science,” Ruhland said.
Sanjana Sivakumar is a junior and is the president of the Science Olympiad club at RHS. This takes a lot of dedication because the team depends on her to plan meetings, answer questions, and help with clarification of material. Although Ripon did not place for any medals, they did win numerous ribbons, including one for circuit lab and code busters. The team got 13th place overall, which is why Sanjana describes what makes all of her hard work worth it in the end.

“I’m proud of the team’s efforts and positive attitude when tackling the events. For the three years we have had Science Olympiad, the club has been a little disorganized, but the members of the club still try to learn as much as they can, even in the short time period, to achieve something. I was a part of Science Olympiad in Atlanta in my middle school and it was a really fun experience. When I heard that we were starting a Science Olympiad at RHS, I was excited to bring the same experiences here,” Sivakumar said.