Albuquerque Academy Intelletes Win State Science Olympiad

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M., Feb. 26, 2005 – Two teams from the Albuquerque Academy took home an abundance of Olympic-style medals and once again won top honors in both the high school and middle school divisions at the 19th annual New Mexico Science Olympiad, which was held on Saturday, February 26, on the New Mexico Tech campus.

The Albuquerque Academy, a perennial winner at the statewide academic competition, made a clean sweep of it this year taking first place overall in both the high school and middle school divisions.

Socorro High School garnered second in the high school division, falling four points short of Academy’s total, while Cloudcroft Middle School placed second in the middle school division of the state Science Olympiad.

In addition to the first-place trophies and numerous medals the science champions amassed, the two teams from the Albuquerque Academy also won rights to represent New Mexico at the National Science Olympiad on May 20-21, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

More than 800 student “intelletes” representing 25 middle schools and 25 high schools from throughout New Mexico gathered on the university campus in Socorro to compete in 45 spirited mental workouts—all of which required massive amounts of brain power, motor skills, teamwork, and imagination . . . not to mention months of planning, practice, and fine-tuning.

During the daylong event, teams of Science Olympians dropped raw eggs from tall buildings, launched rockets propelled by compressed air and water, built Rube Goldberg contraptions, and constructed efficient boomilevers, bridges, and robots in a quest for Olympic-style medals and the chance to represent New Mexico at the national competition.

Division C (high school):
1) Albuquerque Academy (375 points)
2) Socorro High School (371 points)
3) Roswell High School (328 points)
4) La Cueva High School (327 points)
5) Sandia High School (319 points)
6) United World College (280 points)
7) New Mexico Military Institute (278 points)
8) Gadsen High School (277 points)
9) Hobbs High School (276 points)
10) Lovington High School (248 points)

Division B (middle school):
1) Albuquerque Academy (362 points)
2) Cloudcroft Middle School (312 points)
3) Cottonwood Valley Charter School-Socorro (310 points)
4) Taylor Middle School (308 points)
5) Sidney Gutierrez Middle School (303 points)
6) Vista Middle School (295 points)
7) Kirtland Middle School (287 points)
8) Wilson Middle School (282 points)
9) Sarracino Middle School-Socorro (278 points)
10) Hoover Middle School (269 points)

-NMT-