by Alex Feit

Female members of this school’s science team competed in the Women of Science competition at Bedford High School yesterday, according to science department head Amy Winston, the team’s adviser.

The team, comprised of nine girls from all grades, sent three groups of three students each to participate in the competition, according to Winston.

At the event, groups competed in four events: The Boat Bash, an event where teams engineered mousetrap powered boats before the event to be judged for speed and sturdiness; Curie’s Engineering Challenge, a surprise on-site building event’ Pick Your Points, a 15-question science trivia test; and Anything Goes, a general science open response quiz.

The teams placed fourth, seventh and 15th overall out of the 29 team competition, Winston said.

For the Boat Bash event, the groups placed third, fourth and sixth, Winston added.

“We all worked together all the time,” said junior Natsuko Yamagata, the Women of Science team captain. “Even though we were grouped into three different teams, we only separated ourselves on the competition day and not during the preparation days.”

During this preparation time, science team members competing in the event studied general science topics, such as chemistry, biology and earth science, Yamagata said.

“We really had so much fun together, but we were at the same time energetic and motivated,” Yamagata added.

At times during practice, the team became unfocused, possibly hindering its performance in the actual competition, according to Yamagata. Consequently, the team became “crammed around the last week before the competition.”

The full science team will compete at Westwood High School Thursday for the West Suburban Science League meet.