Buffalo Grove High School's Science Olympiad participated in the State Science Olympiad Tournament at the University of Illinois on April 14, where the Bison took an impressive 10th place as a team and also garnered numerous individual awards. This marks the fifth consecutive year that Buffalo Grove was the top-placing team in District 214.  Science Olympiad is a competition that combines students' content knowledge with processing skills across 23 different science and engineering topics. 

The following BGHS students were awarded individual medals: Bernard Xie and Mike Kosk—5th Place in State, Technical Problem Solving; team captains Sammi Bulmash and Meg O'Donovan—2nd Place in State, Forensics; and Steven Macenski (assisted by Rebecca Spence)—1st in State, Helicopters.

"Steven's (Macenski) accomplishment was truly impressive," said one of the BGHS Science Olympiad coaches, Rich Schram. "He has literally spent hundreds of hours designing and constructing his helicopter with a goal of improving upon his 2nd place finish last year. To our knowledge, Steven was the only contestant in the state able to construct a working 'Chinook' style, dual-axle helicopter to earn him a triple time bonus." 

Other top ten Bison finishers included the following: Xie and Kosk—8th Place, Chemistry Lab; Xie and Bulmash—8th Place, Fermi Questions; Julia Komrska and Sarah Wenzel—9th Place, Forestry; Maria Krutikova—10th Place, Gravity Vehicle; Xie and Kausal Mahadas—9th Place,

Thermodynamics; Macenski—8th Place, Towers; and Bulmash and O'Donovan—6th Place,
Write It, Do It.

Other contributing varsity team members are Ken Banting, Elizabeth Coe, Mikey Diamond, Bree Malvin, Quinn Patrick, Matt Wiewel, and Alex Wziontka.     

Coaches Schram and Lisa Raucci credit former coach Jim Behymer, who will retire from teaching this June, with setting the bar for Buffalo Grove Science Olympiad's high achievement throughout the years.     

"In addition to Jim's long-time role as the coach of the team," said Schram, "he has remained a constant resource of support and knowledge for the team, since stepping down from that position. Jim has had a hand in all of the success that Science Olympiad has achieved through the years, and we will miss him greatly after his retirement."