Junior high schools hold science competition

Intermountain Catholic

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The First Place team was comprised of Dominic Colosimo (left) and Maddy Thatcher, from Saint John the Baptist School, and Alexa Mortenson from Blessed Sacrament School. Photos courtesy of Sonia West

SANDY — A science challenge was held between Blessed Sacrament School, Saint Francis Xavier Regional School and Saint John the Baptist Middle School on Oct. 17, at Saint John the Baptist Elementary School.

Eighth-grade students from Blessed Sacrament, Saint Francis Xavier and Saint John the Baptist Catholic Schools participated. Representing Blessed Sacrament were Madison Abele, Connor Baker, Gavin Causse, Andrew Montoya, Alexa Mortenson and Andrew Tita.

Students from Saint Francis Xavier were Melanie Mecham, Kelly Mehmen, Ethan Driffall, Alex Dobesh and Joe Strandgard.

Participants from Saint John the Baptist were Dominic Colosimo, Maddy Thatcher, Ian Dinehart, Zach Schonrock, Olivia Ortiz, Joey Butkovich, Olivia Cella, Zach Warrell, Joseph Moyle, David Celestino, Ryan Green, Alex Herrmann and Chloe Bartlett.

"Students were selected to participate based on leadership, service, grades, behavior and participation," said Vicky Simpson, science teacher from Saint Francis Xavier.

Thoughts of a science challenge came about last year while Jeanne Lindmar, Blessed Sacrament, and Matt Fries, Saint John the Baptist, were chaperoning at a diocesan middle school dance. Over the year, they refined the challenge and the stage was set for the competition.

Lindmar and Fries wanted to bring the schools together in collaboration and not in competition with one another. Students drew numbers and were assigned a team according to the number that was drawn. This was a team-building experience with students having the opportunity to collaborate and brainstorm with peers from other schools.

The day began with prayer in the prayer garden and then the first round of competition began. The first challenge involved engineering.

Each team was given four straws and some aluminum foil. They were to design a raft that would float while holding pennies. Points were assigned based on the length of time the raft could stay afloat. Juan Diego Catholic High School students Katie Mullin and Nicholas Bertagnolli assisted with the raft experiment.

For the second challenge, each team was given tape and a newspaper. They were to build a tower and see how many minutes the tower could stand on its own.

"It was fun interacting with students from other schools," Abele commented.

First- and second-place teams were awarded trophies. The first-place team was comprised of Dominic Colosimo and Maddy Thatcher from Saint John the Baptist, and Alexa Mortenson from Blessed Sacrament.

The second-place team was made up of Connor Baker from Blessed Sacrament, Ian Dinehart and Zach Shonrock from Saint John the Baptist.

Connor Baker said, "This was a good experience in general. I was excited about placing second with the raft competition."

Andrew Montoya added, "It was fun to do the activities."

Lindmar is hoping to make this an annual event to build camaraderie among the students as they prepare to graduate and move on to high school.

"This was our first year, and we are pleased with how smoothly everything went," said Lindmar. "We are proud of the students who took time on a Saturday to participate. We look forward to expanding the challenge next year."