The Townsend Harris Science Olympiad team recently attended the seventh annual Long Island Science Olympiad Invitational (LISO Invy) at Syosset High School. LISO is the first Science Olympiad competition of the season and the first-ever competition for several members. However, this didn’t stop the team from achieving noteable placement and receiving eight total medals in events Disease Detective, Water Quality, and Boomilever. 

“Our reason for doing LISO has always been to get our feet wet and for it to be the motivation to make necessary changes throughout the season,” explained SciOly Technical Secretary senior Elizabeth Duchan.  “Attending LISO along with many nationally ranked teams is the wake-up call to the changes needed to be made to further their success and gives new SCIOLY members hands on experiences.”

This year, Biology teachers and SciOly coaches Sarah Loew and Katherine Cooper noted that there were scheduling complications, both commenting, “Unfortunately there was an SAT and SAT II given on the same day as LISO so there were a lot of juniors who couldn’t attend the LISO competition.” Although these complications limited the number of members that could attend LISO to compete, rookies such as Freshman Anjali Luckhoo and Sophomore Jennifer Quisi still gave it their all and came in ninth out of seventy teams in the event Disease Detective. 

SciOly President senior Esther Chai said, “Some obstacles were just that this competition was a pretty early one for us, so we had some build materials unavailable and were still getting familiar with our events.” Teams for LISO are often made two weeks before the competition date, giving them a limited amount of time to learn the material and work with designated partners for events. However, Esther said, “I have seen them come to study sessions, as we hold pretty intense study periods after school until 6, and they have stuck to it, and many have not given up. They inspire me and I’m sure they will bring SciOly to new heights.”