The Barrington High School Science Olympiad team received its best score ever at the Rhode Island State Science Olympiad competition and punched its ticket for nationals.

Barrington Middle School finishes second at states.

Barrington rolled to a first place finish at states, outscoring the second place team by 61 points. The victory was marked by a total of 11 gold medal event finishes this year. Barrington High School students also scored six silver medals and one bronze.

"The BHS Science Olympiad team has been busy this year," wrote coach Sonalya Jayasuriya. "They competed at the MIT Invitational earlier this year in January with 65 other teams and earned places in the mid-30s."

Ms. Jayasuriya also said the high school students have been busy mentoring younger students in the district. 

"The high school students have also generously and very enthusiastically given of their time at both the Primrose Hill Math and Science Night and the Nayatt STEM night," Ms. Jayasuriya said. "They really enjoy engaging with younger kids and helping to foster another generation of science enthusiasts."

At the Rhode Island State Science Olympiad competition, Barrington High School students performed very well. Local students won individual events ranging from anatomy and physiology to Dynamic Planet, and Robot Arm to Experimental design. The local team scored no lower than a 6 — the best score is a 1 and the worst score is a 25 — on any single event competition. 

Barrington High School had an impressive final score of 37 (on 20 events, for an average event score of 1.85.)

Smithfield finished in second place with a score of 98 and Portsmouth was third with 130 points.

This year marked the seventh time Barrington High School won the Rhode Island State Science Olympiad and earned the right to represent the Ocean State at nationals. This year, the Science Olympiad Nationals will be held at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. 

Paying for nationals

The Barrington High School Science Olympaid team will compete at nationals this year, but hopes to raise some money to off-set the costs of the upcoming trip. The local students will be outside the Shaw's Supermarket  collecting donations on Sunday, April 30 and Saturday, May 6. "We hope we will see everyone there cheering/supporting the team on to Nationals," said Barrington High School coach Sonalya Jayasuriya.