Interlake High School

Interlake High School is a Division C fierce national competitor1 for the 2018-2019 season from Washington state that as of February 2020 has qualified for the State Tournament for eight consecutive years. The team was founded in 2010 by Gordon Sun and is currently in its tenth year. The school initially had only one team, but has grown to four teams that compete in the Northwest Regional. In the 2019 season, Interlake sent two teams to the Washington State Tournament on April 13 at Highline College.

School Background
Interlake High School puts a strong focus on academics, with strong Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and gifted programs that bring students from other regions to the school. Interlake enrolls approximately 1,500 students in grades 9-12. Interlake has a fairly diverse community, with 41% of students speaking a first language other than English.

Team Demographics
Interlake High School's Science Olympiad Team, "Interlake Science Olympiad,"" has enrolled at most around 63 members at one time (as of April 2016). Out of 55 students that competed at the Washington Northwest Regional for Interlake in 2016, 33 (60.0%) were female and 22 (40.0%) were male, making the gender split different from most other STEM-oriented clubs at the school, which generally have significantly more male members than female members. The leadership of Interlake Science Olympiad in 2016 season also had a majority of female members, with 4 female officers and 3 male officers.

Out of the 55 members who competed at the Regional competition in 2016, 12 (21.8%) were seniors (class of 2016), 10 (18.2%) were juniors, 4 (7.3%) were sophomores, and 29 (52.7%) were freshmen.

Most of the students in Interlake Science Olympiad come from an East or South Asian ethnic background. Only about 6 (±1) of the 55 students who competed at the 2016 Regional competition came from other ethnic backgrounds (White or Middle Eastern).

Competition Results
Interlake Science Olympiad regularly competes in Aviation Invitational (with the exception of the 2016 season) and the Washington Northwest Regional. Interlake has competed in both the Highline College and Seattle Central College Regional Tournaments, rather than choosing one location to compete at every year. However, since both sites ceased to host tournaments moving into the 2020 season, Interlake along with the many teams of Washington state have competed at new sites that change with each season.

Leadership
As of April 2016, Interlake High School has 1 head coach and 7 student officers, as well as 2 parent coaches. While all the officers perform various tasks in order to make sure the club is run effectively, each officer position also has a specific job, a system that has been in place since the end of the 2014 season. The officers are elected at the end of the season, usually during the last meeting of the school year. Build captain was initially a delegated position when it was created at the end of the 2014 season, but became integrated into the main officer team at the end of the 2015 season. The officers are voted on by popular vote of club members, and the new officer team chooses their own positions during their first officer meeting.

Coaches
For the 2016 season, Interlake Science Olympiad had one head coach who is the supervising teacher of the club. In the summer before, the club gained two parent volunteer coaches who coach students in life science events, including Anatomy and Physiology, Cell Biology, Disease Detectives, Green Generation, Invasive Species, and Protein Modeling.

Officer Positions
President: Leads officer meetings and oversees all general club affairs.

Vice President: Helps the president in overseeing all general club affairs.

Secretary: Takes attendance, records meeting notes, manages logistics, like forms, transportation, ordering materials, etc.

Treasurer: Manages money, including fundraising and reimbursements to members that buy materials on behalf of the club.

Newcomer Liaison: Focuses on getting new members to join the club, especially freshmen. This officer also communicates more with new members throughout the year in order to help them succeed during their first year. This position is preferably filled by one of the younger officers in order to give underclassmen a less intimidating way to talk to the officers.

Build Captains (2): Buy materials and run errands for build events, organize build meetings, ensure builds are getting done.

Team Structure
Interlake High School has 3-4 teams. The teams follow an A team, B team, C team structure, with A team being the top team, followed by B, and C team, etc. Interlake Science Olympiad frequently renames its teams each season. These names are usually suggestive of the teams' expected performances, with their top team usually having the superlative name.

For the 2015 season, Interlake registered four teams (named Trenta, Venti, Grande, and Tall), but only three competed at the regional level. For the 2016 season, Interlake registered four teams (Astronauts, Black Holes, Curiosity, and Discovery), and all four competed at the regional level.

Summer/Day Camps
During the summer of 2014, members from Interlake High School started a summer day camp for students entering grades 5-9 in order to fundraise for the following seasons. The camps was organized and led entirely by several of the high school students in the club. Two sessions were held, each two weeks long. Each day was focused on one or two Science Olympiad events, with more involved build events like Mission Possible, which took up two days. The event-focused lessons were also interspersed with general science lectures covering topics like chemistry, kinematics, circuits, and biology.

The day camps continued in 2015 with a one week session over the Bellevue School District's Spring Break. The main focus of this camp was build events, including Bridge Building, Wright Stuff, Scrambler, It's About Time, Write It Do It, and Mission Possible.

The summer 2015 day camps will run for four weeks, each week focused on a different branch of science. There will be one week focused on biology, one week focused on chemistry, and two weeks focused on physics.

Tryouts
Interlake began holding tryouts in the 2015 season in order to determine team and event placements, but the structure of tryouts is likely to change in future years.

Invitational Tournament
Interlake High School hosted it inaugural invitational tournament on December 06, 2014. All events were run and 28 teams completed. The results were as follows: first place to Bothell High School, second place to Camas High School, and third place to Aviation High School. Interlake will not host an invitational tournament in the 2016 season.

School Affiliations
Students from Interlake helped start a Science Olympiad team at Big Picture School starting in the 2016 season. Starting in the 2016 season, a student at Interlake acted as a student coach for Tyee Middle School's Science Olympiad club.

2016

 * The 2016 season is the start of Interlake Science Olympiad's affiliation with Big Picture School Science Olympiad.


 * The 2016 season is the start of Interlake Science Olympiad's affiliation with Tyee Middle School Science Olympiad.

2015

 * The 2015 season is the first season in which Interlake Science Olympiad won a competition. Interlake beat out the top two teams in the state, Camas High School and Bothell High School, at the Aviation Invitational. Interlake also achieved their best finish at State with a 3rd place trophy. For the first time, every member of the team won at least one medal.


 * The 2015 season is when Interlake held an Invitational Tournament.


 * The 2015 season is the first season that specific officer positions were created (President, Treasurer, etc.).


 * The 2015 season is the first season that tryouts were held. Students tried out for specific sets of events that are predetermined by the officers. Each student chose which event set he or she wanted, and took one test to tryout for a 2-event set and two tests to tryout for a 3-event set. Build events were not included in these sets and were assigned after tryouts on a more subjective basis with past experience in mind. The tryout test scores were not the only factor that were be considered in team placement; other factors also came into play, such as experience in Science Olympiad as well as willingness to study or build ahead of time. However, the student with the best scores for an event set was generally placed on the top team, the student with the second best scores on second team, and so on.

2012

 * The 2012 season is the first season the Interlake competed in the Washington State Tournament.

2011

 * The 2011 season is the first season that Interlake competed in the Washington Northwest Regional Tournament.

Trivia
Interlake High School's rival schools for Science Olympiad are Bothell High School and Troy High School3.

Members of the Team
Gordon Sun - The honorable founder of Interlake Science Olympiad

bernard (2012-2015) - President (2013-2015), Build/Team Captain (2014-2015)

balsa (2012-2015) - Co-President (2013-2015), Entomology Expert (2013-2015)4

watermydoing14 (2013-2016) - Build/Team Captain (2014-2015), President (2015-2016)

goldiny (2014-2016) - Build/Team Captain (2014-2015)

houdown (2013-2016) - Vice President (2014-2016)

FluffyBubbleFire (2013-2016) - Secretary (2014-2015), Newcomer Liaison (2015-2016)

lin_dugong (2013-2016) - Treasurer (2014-2015)

ethiopianbear (2014-2017) - Newcomer Liaison (2014-2015), Build/Team Captain (2014-2015), Build Captain (2015-2016)

raydioactive (2014-2017)

Lucky (2018-2019)