Mrs. Boila’s Physics class attended the annual Physics Olympics at Youngstown State University on February 22, 2025. The Olympics allows physics classes from schools around the area including some from Pennsylvania to compete in events to showcase the skills each physics class has been working on over the past few months. Lowellville students in this year’s physics class include: Kenna Beeson, Gianna Clement, Christian Coira, Nick Donatelli, Kyle England, Maddie Esposito, Morgan Lewis, Kenzie McCormick, Hadassah Rivera, and Aryana Salata.
There were nine different events in this year’s Olympics: Hot Water Making, House of Cards, Soda Straw Arm, Ping Pong Ball Launch, Physics Phloater, Physics Hang-ups, Egg Drop and Barbie Bungee. Each event has its own rules, regulations, and requirements. The day of the Olympics varies for each school as they are given a schedule showing the times of which event. Each school can register for all or just some of the events.
For Lowellville, the day started off in The Debartolo Stadium Club. This is where the Barbie Bungee and Egg Drop competition took place. Barbie Bungee, a new event, was an added event this year replacing the Balsa Wood Bridges pass students competed in. According to the YSU Physics Olympics Rules this event was added in order “To encourage students to explore concepts in physics, such as energy, motion, and elasticity, by designing a bungee cord system for a Barbie doll that achieves the longest possible safe fall. Christian Coira, Nick Donatelli and Kyle England competed against Ursuline and Hickory, earning third place. Hadassah’s favorite event to watch was the Barbie Bungee because it was an opportunity for everyone from the physics class to compete.
Next, Gianna Clement and Morgan Lewis competed in the Soda Straw Arm where they had to construct an arm out of soda straws which could support a 50-gram mass for 10 seconds. Although Gianna and Morgan did not place in this event, they had a great time.
After the Soda Arm event, Kenna Beeson and Morgan Lewis competed in the Ping Pong Launch event. They did not place in this event but they had fun preparing for the event.
Following the Ping Pong Launch event was Making Music with Original Musical Instruments. Gianna Clement, Maddie Esposito, and Hadassah Rivera competed in this event. For their original creation they used boomwhackers, hollow plastic tubes that are tuned to musical pitches by length, to play the song “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift. Maddie Esposito really enjoyed the music making event for the creative aspect of it.
Nick Donatelli and Christian Coira participated in the fourth event, Hot Water Making. According to the YSU Physics Olympics rules, the criteria of this event was “To heat 300 grams of water by using mechanical means only. The goal is to achieve the greatest temperature rise in the shortest time, and A minimum temperature rise of 5°C is required for scoring.” The hot water making event was my personal favorite event to watch because it engaged both the students and spectators of the event. The rest of our class was all watching Christian and Nick compete while cheering them on when they placed second.
Kenna Beeson and Hadassah Rivera participated in the House of Cards, where participants had 30 minutes to build the tallest free-standing structure possible. They ended up placing third in this event. Kenna said that this was her favorite event of the day. “The cards ended up being as tall as Hadassah and I! We both had a lot of fun doing it,” Kenna stated.
Kyle England and I participated in Physics Phloaters . The main objective was to “build a rubber-band-propelled phloater that travels the fastest along a water-filled PVC raceway.” Kyle and I won first place by only 3 seconds. We both worked very hard on building this boat perfectly. We were equally stressed about this event, so ultimately winning by 3 seconds was a huge relief. Mrs. Boila said that this was her favorite moment of the day! Following the physics phloaters, all of the competing schools went to the Debartolo Stadium Club to enjoy lunch before watching the Egg Drop competition.
Kenzie McCormick and I competed in the Egg Drop, where the participants’ main objective was to “build a container of original design with minimum mass to protect a medium raw egg from breaking or cracking when dropped from a height of 14 meters.”
Kenzie and Maddie made two Physics Hang-ups. The objective was “ students an opportunity to express their knowledge of physics in a creative, artistic, or humorous manner.” Kenzie made a poster highlighting Foucault’s Pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of earth. Maddie did a hang up focusing on force with a drawing of Darth Vadar using coloring pencils she included the equation for force.
Overall, the Physics Olympics was a great opportunity to experiment and learn more about how things work. Mrs. Boila said, “It is a great way for students to get hands-on experience in the field of physics. Students experiment and plan their projects ahead of time, but they get a true feel for science and engineering in the moments when things don’t go according to plan. Although the students may not appreciate it at the time, they learn so much when they have to adapt and change plans to compete when rules change or devices don’t function as planned.”
Congratulations to the physics class on placing third in this year’s competition!
