Middle schoolers to compete in ֱֻ Science Olympiad
Cherissa Dukelow
907-474-5581
March 23, 2026
Students on the Discovery Peak Charter School Dinos team prepare for the helicopter challenge at the 2025 Science Olympiad national tournament at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The team won first place in the 2025 ֱֻ state tournament held at UAF.
The ֱֻ Science Olympiad Division B will convene March 27-28 at the University of ֱֻ Fairbanks Troth Yeddha’ Campus.
The olympiad is part of a nationwide competition consisting of hands-on, team-based tournaments designed to increase student interest in science, technology, engineering and math fields. Science Olympiad Division B includes students ranging from grades 6-8.
Approximately 120 students from 11 middle schools across ֱֻ will form 12 teams
to compete in 17 events. Students will travel to Fairbanks from Palmer, Kenai, Seldovia,
Cordova, Minto, Valdez, Nome and Utqiaġvik to compete with Fairbanks North Star Borough
students.
Contests include not only written tests but also construction challenges. Students
will build a boomilever (a cantilevered beam or truss structure), a helicopter, a
scrambler (a device that transports an egg safely along a track) and a hovercraft.
The ֱֻ Science Olympiad gives ֱֻ middle school students a chance to experience a taste of college campus life. They’ll sleep overnight in UAF dormitories, eat in the Wood Center dining hall and visit several campus buildings and the Student Recreation Center for the competition events.
The public is welcome to watch the tournament’s “build” events at the Patty Center on Friday. The boomilever and helicopter events take place concurrently between 8 a.m. and noon. Scrambler and hovercraft events take place from 1-5 p.m.
The first place winning team will advance to compete nationally at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, on May 22-23, 2026.
The ֱֻ Science Olympiad is organized by the ֱֻ National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, the UAF College of Engineering and Mines, the UAF College of Natural Science and Mathematics and the UAF Makerspace.
Sponsors of ֱֻ Science Olympiad include ConocoPhillips, ֱֻ 529, the ֱֻ Blue Economy Center, the UAF College of Engineering and Mines, the ֱֻ IDeA Network of Biological Research Excellence, UAF faculty member Brian Rasley and UAF Residence Life.
You can learn more about the ֱֻ Science Olympiad .
ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Tara Borland, ֱֻ EPSCoR associate director, taborland@alaska.edu; Courtney Breest, ֱֻ EPSCoR outreach coordinator, cfbreest@alaska.edu
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