As the Sea to Sky Corridor counts down to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Howe Sound Secondary is celebrating an Olympic victory of its own this week.
The school placed third out of over 60 high schools in the Physics Olympics XXXI at the University of British Columbia Saturday (March 7).
A team of 10 students placed strongly in six events, including the two main events, which involved building the strongest bridge of the lightest material possible, and creating an electromagnet with the strongest attraction for its weight.
" [The students] put a lot of effort into it, and they had a real desire to do well. They were up here until about 10 p.m. every night," said HSS physics teacher Alex Katramadakis of the team's success. "The school got a really good reputation - we won first place two years ago. We've always consistently been in the top 10 through the years, and I think they just wanted to live up to that."
And thanks in part to the input of local electricity hobbyist Cam Fox, the team scored more than double the points in the magnetic project than the runners up.
"The scores were around 4.5 and we were 10, so we really kicked some butt on that one," said Katramadakis.
Although Fox's name won't have an honourary place on the winners' plaque, "he'll have an honourary place in our hearts," said Katramadakis.
The victory is a return to a long-held tradition of Howe Sound students besting high schools throughout B.C. after a brief absence from the prestigious competition.
"Last year we didn't compete - after we won, we didn't get a team together. There weren't enough students into it. It was the first time that happened."
A change in the team recruitment policy may have been the answer to this year's strong student interest and eventual comeback, said team member Theresa Erickson.
"This year, instead of it being just Grade 12, it was anyone that wanted to. So we had a Grade 10, a Grade 11 and a bunch from Grade 12. So our team started out really big, there was a lot of people, and then it diminished to the people who really, really wanted to be in it."
Erickson also credited good teaching skills for the level of enthusiasm and success.
"I love physics. The way Mr. K teaches it, it really helps."
Erickson said she is now following her sister's lead and enrolling in engineering at UBC Okanagan, thanks in large part to the experience of Physics Olympics XXXI, which included an address by Nobel Prize winning physicist Carl Wyman.
This, according to Katramadakis, may be the most rewarding victory of all.
"I really like to see women going into engineering - or anybody going into engineering - so it's awesome."
