After a solid performance at the Science Olympiad National Tournament, held on May 19 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, young scientists from A.W. Coolidge Middle School in Reading, MA can now proudly say they are the 27th best team in the nation out of the approximately 3,000 middle schools that competed in the Science Olympiad program this year.

Congratulations A.W. Coolidge Science Olympiad Team!

The 2012 Coolidge Science Olympiad Team includes eighth graders Paulaine Goldsmith, Jeffrey Qiu, Natalie Rotstein, Daniel Sullivan, Parker Webb and Cynthia Yang; seventh graders Matthew Baynes, Jacob Beckley, Alex Gousie, Matthew Grottkau, Atticus Habel, Alex Hutchinson, Andrew Hutchinson, Kevin Luikey, Ryaan Moss, David Oliver and Mark Porter; and sixth graders, Will Bresnahan, Gabe Cronin-Golomb, Connor Ehl, Harrison Fiscus, Daniel Gadre, Nicholas Gaudreault, Roberto Jarrin, Fred Pan, Cullen Pu, Dustin Rosh, Nathaniel Smith and Kevin Spear.

The Coolidge School Science Olympiad program at the A.W. Coolidge Middle School in Reading, Massachusetts is comprised of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who compete in the Science Olympiad program. The Coolidge team won first place at the Massachusetts Science Olympiad on March 17, 2012 – the 19th time in the last 20 years that the Coolidge team has brought home this honor. A.W. Coolidge was declared state champs after competing against 25 other middle schools from around the state in 23 science and engineering events.

Students competed in subjects such as bottle rocket design and construction, forensics, optics, meteorology, food science, anatomy, water quality, and more.

After winning the title in Massachusetts, the team of 29 students represented the Commonwealth at the National Science Olympiad Competition, which took place at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on May 18 and 19. A.W. Coolidge placed 27 out of 60 national teams, only 5 points behind Pennsylvania’s Shady Side Academy and 9 points behind Georgia’s Fulton Science Academy MS who took the 25^th spot.

The team is coached by Karawan Meade, a past member, Coolidge science teachers John McCarthy and Paul Guidetti, additional teachers, parents, and members of the community, including MassBio members, Pfizer’s Thomas Porter and Sergio Rotstein.

For more on A.W. Coolidge’s Science Olympiad Team, and to make a donation, visit: http://www.coolidgescienceteam.org/ For more on the National Science Olympiad 2012, click here. For complete competition results, click here.