Franklin Regional students take 2nd place at regional Science Olympiad at Cal U

The Franklin Regional Middle School (FRMS) Science Olympiad Team placed second at the Pennsylvania Southwestern regional tournament held March 6 at California University of Pennsylvania.

The competition was a series of 23 events that used various methods to test students’ scientific knowledge, including written tests, problem-solving activities and building events.

The students worked since early October to prepare. Coached by FRMS science teachers Joe Racchini and Jennifer Joyce, the team will now move on to the state level tournament, held Aprli 27 at Juniata College.

This will be the middle school team’s 19th consecutive trip to the state competition.

To earn the team’s second place finish, team members took individual medals in 19 of the 23 events:

• First place: Elastic Launched Glider, Tim Cao and Praneel Varshney; Meteorology, Tim Cao and Praneel Varshney; Mystery Architecture, Ellen Liu and Grace Wang.

• Second place: Disease Detectives, Urvish Jain and Sam Morton; Dynamic Planet, Tim Cao and Praneel Varshney; Road Scholar, Ben Hollerman and Praneel Varshney; Thermodynamics, Darius Colangelo and Conner Zhou.

• Third place: Anatomy & Physiology, Abhinav Komanduri and Salome Martinez; Battery Buggy, Ben Hollerman and Josh Selvakumar; Boomilever, Tim Cao and Conner Zhou; Circuit Lab, John Ciecierski and Darius Colangelo; Crime Busters, Ellen Liu and Hannah Zheng; Density Labl, Thomas Hieber and Josh Selvakumar; Fossils, Thomas Hieber and Urvish Jain; Potions & Poisons, Thomas Hieber and Sam Morton.

• Fourth place: Experimental Design, Urvish Jain, Abhinav Komanduri, and Grace Wang; Heredity, Salome Martinez and Hannah Zheng; Roller Coaster, Salome Martinez and Josh Selvakumar; Water Quality, Ben Hollerman and Sam Morton.