With the original event on March 4 canceled one day prior to the competition and shifted to a virtual format, the Coppell ISD Science Olympiad teams had to quickly adapt to a new setup. 

Students from Coppell High School, Coppell Middle School North and Coppell Middle School West competed from March 26-April 31 to try and secure a spot at the state competition. 

“There was that whole sense of anticipation that wasn’t there,” CHS Science Olympiad co-sponsor Susan Sheppard said. “It was like testing in a dark room where you can’t see how everyone else is doing.”

According to Science Olympiad Alpha team captain Mytri Nair, Tarrant County College changed the schedules for the competition 24 hours prior to the event and then proceeded to cancel the event altogether. 

Even in the face of adversity, the CISD teams fared well with the CHS Alpha team placing third overall and the Beta team placing sixth overall. CMSN placed fifth overall and CMSW placed eighth overall. 

“It’s really exciting to take middle school with us for the first time in four years,” Nair said. 

Although the team had to overcome many logistical hurdles due to the variety of grade levels participating, they maximized the time of their practices to the best of their abilities. 

“It is pretty stressful, especially preparing during the week or so leading up to competition, but I enjoyed it,” sophomore Sai Priya Kasiraman said. 

Members attended morning and afternoon meetings where they took notes and discussed their events with their respective partners. While most of the building and testing was done outside of school, club leaders organized opportunities for the teams to utilize spaces such as CHS Arena and the CISD’s Vonita White Administration Building for competition preparation. 

The teams from CHS and CMSN will compete at the state competition on Friday and Saturday at Texas A&M University. 

“My hope is for us to place in the top ten and we are practicing a lot to do well,” Nair said.

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