Windy Ridge Middle School

Our team, which is located in Florida, has had quite a rough ride. First, we were first at regionals for the second year in a row (this is our second year as a team).

At states, it was too close for the judges to announce the placements. There was a one point difference between first and second place.

36 hours after the competition, the judges sent out words that, in our second year, we had beat the reigning team, Gulf Breeze.

We thought we were going to nationals in our second year, and we were so excited!

However, 48 hours later, the Florida Science Olympiad organizer told us that there had been a judging error. We came in second place by 22 points. Everyone was so upset.

So a few months go by, and we move on, pick ourselves back up and go on with our lives.

Then, three weeks before the National Competition in Augusta, Georgia, our wonderful coach, Carrieann Schneider, heard from the President of Science Olympiad that the Oklahoma Team had, for whatever reason declined their invitation.

After looking at everything that we had gone through, the National Board had decided to grant us the privilege of attending the 2009 National Competition.

So now, we had four more days to prepare, but we're feeling pretty confident. We had seven weeks less than everyone else to get ready, but we're hoping that will play to our advantage.

We'll just have to see.

~A Windy Ridge Silver Hawk