Change in Scientific Importance for Youth (Delta SIFY), held its annual Highlander Invitational, a science Olympiad competition for K-12 students. The event was the biggest STEM competition in Inland Empire History celebrating a year’s worth of projects, studying and experiments to promote scientific engagement at the grade school level.  

The event started at 7 a.m., where participants would check in on behalf of their school to see what time and what classrooms their events would take place at. There were three types of events that students could participate in: study, lab and experiment. 

Courtesy of Sanjana Thatte News Editor / The Highlander

Study events involve students taking a test on their given subject in pairs and competing for the best score. Laboratory assignments often require manipulating materials to solve a question posed in their assignment. And experiments involved testing projects students had been developing such as electric cars, projectile launchers and mini helicopter models for recorded scores.

The organization was founded in 2022 by Director Michael Tin. Tin, who is also the Tech Director for The Highlander, had participated in many science Olympiad competitions when he was in grade school. Invitational’s are often considered to be a “trial run” in comparison to higher-level Science Olympiad competitions, such as regional and national competitions. Schools often host invitationals to prepare for these larger scale competitions. However these competitions are somewhat lacking in the Inland Empire as funding for programs is often lacking, along with parents’ lack of awareness for such competitions. 

Delta SIFY also runs a year-round Science Olympiad coaching academy at the Riverside Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Academy. Tin thought it would be fitting to have an invitational at the University of California Riverside (UCR) to provide opportunities for Inland Empire students to participate in, encouraging involvement and passion for STEM subjects in school.

Students study and prepare for a variety of subjects competed at the Science Olympiad level throughout the year. Fourth-year biology major Allyson Phan explained that the kids “don’t play” and become experts in their field in order to do well in the competition. In the forensics category, students were given powder samples and asked to figure out “who did it” based on the chemical evidence given to them. 

Another testing category, known as disease detectives, involved students studying various diseases and bacteria throughout the year and being asked to identify them in their exams. The engineering events were often assessed on metrics. For example, the helicopter event involved the students creating a helicopter-like structure and seeing how long it would stay in the air. 

Delta SIFY spends the year creating the exams and organizing locations across campus to hold events. They regularly reach out to fellow science Olympiad enthusiasts from across the country to help create exam questions based on the material students would be studying. Allyson Phan explained that this was because they did not want to create exams solely based on Southern California teaching materials. 

When asked how examiners seek to promote a healthy competitive atmosphere, Phan explains that though students do take competition very seriously, they do it for their love of STEM subjects, making sure their hard work over the course of the year pays off during the competition. 

Students engage in the forensics event, where they attempt to figure out “who dunnit” based on forensic evidence. Courtesy of Sanjana Thatte News Editor / The Highlander

Director Tin spoke more on this at the awards ceremony. He recalled that he was told countless times that to hold an event such as the Highlander Invitational “at UCR wouldn’t be possible, we wouldn’t get the funding, we wouldn’t get the people and we would never have been able to host events like this.” He emphasized that by hosting events such as these, students choose to reject the narrative “that changing the world is not possible … and that education is only meant for those who can afford it. Tonight, we reject that story and choose to write a different one.

“Because the truth is, history isn’t written by kings or queens or CEOs or politicians. History isn’t written by guys with fancy titles who dress up in fancy suits. No. History is written by us, the working people of the world.” 

Thanking the students for their dedication to the competition, Tin expressed that, “in a world built upon anger and hate, upon war and violence, let us turn the page and write a new chapter in the story. Let this be the beginning of something different. Let us build a better world with love and kindness. Let us believe in a better world where education is a fundamental human right and not a privilege. And let us truly create a Change in Scientific Importance for Youth. Because this world belongs to the workers who build it, and education belongs to all those who dare to seek it.”

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