KINGSTON — The students gathered in the Kingston Junior High gymnasium tonight may be still-growing Galileos or cultivating Copernicuses, but don’t tell them that. They’ll probably think they’re just having fun.

Hundreds of students from kindergarten to sixth grade will gather at 6:30 p.m. in Kingston for one of the North Kitsap School District’s most highly-anticipated evenings: the Science Olympics.

In it, students compete to solve scientific problems in the most effective manner possible. Each individual or team is given certain materials and a time limit in which to solve the problem.

First graders build boats that can both float and hold washers, which are used as weights; second graders construct paper bridges; third graders craft two-wheelers out of paper plates, pencils, washers and a clump or two of clay.

Fourth, fifth and sixth graders have their own tasks.

The student or team that does the best — whoever builds the bridge that holds the most weight, for example, or the architect of the catapult that flings a marshmallow the farthest — wins.

It may sound like playtime, but the event also teaches the kids, said Peggy Bullock, the district’s elementary sciences technician.

“The kids don’t understand that they’re doing science. They think they’re building something cool,” Bullock said.

She added that the events teach kids about the scientific methods, one of the district’s top goals within its science curriculum.

Students work on the tasks for about a month leading up to the Olympics. They compete within their own school s and grades to make it to the district event. Each student who participates in the district Olympics gets a ribbon.

Poulsbo Elementary sixth graders Gage Mundee and Aki McFarlane will compete tonight after constructing a tower of clear drinking straws that looks like something a young Frank Gehry may have built during recess.

“I’m not good at math, but I’m good at building, and I knew triangles were the stronger shape,” said Mundee.

The tower didn’t sink a centimeter when tested with metal washers, propelling both boys to tonight’s event.

“I like to build stuff,” admitted McFarlane. “And I’m good at it. He is, too.”

By TREVOR PYLE

Staff Writer

KINGSTON — The students gathered in the Kingston Junior High gymnasium tonight may be still-growing Galileos or cultivating Copernicuses, but don’t tell them that. They’ll probably think they’re just having fun.

Hundreds of students from kindergarten to sixth grade will gather at 6:30 p.m. in Kingston for one of the North Kitsap School District’s most highly-anticipated evenings: the Science Olympics.

In it, students compete to solve scientific problems in the most effective manner possible. Each individual or team is given certain materials and a time limit in which to solve the problem.

First graders build boats that can both float and hold washers, which are used as weights; second graders construct paper bridges; third graders craft two-wheelers out of paper plates, pencils, washers and a clump or two of clay.

Fourth, fifth and sixth graders have their own tasks.

The student or team that does the best — whoever builds the bridge that holds the most weight, for example, or the architect of the catapult that flings a marshmallow the farthest — wins.

It may sound like playtime, but the event also teaches the kids, said Peggy Bullock, the district’s elementary sciences technician.

“The kids don’t understand that they’re doing science. They think they’re building something cool,” Bullock said.

She added that the events teach kids about the scientific methods, one of the district’s top goals within its science curriculum.

Students work on the tasks for about a month leading up to the Olympics. They compete within their own school s and grades to make it to the district event. Each student who participates in the district Olympics gets a ribbon.

Poulsbo Elementary sixth graders Gage Mundee and Aki McFarlane will compete tonight after constructing a tower of clear drinking straws that looks like something a young Frank Gehry may have built during recess.

“I’m not good at math, but I’m good at building, and I knew triangles were the stronger shape,” said Mundee.

The tower didn’t sink a centimeter when tested with metal washers, propelling both boys to tonight’s event.

“I like to build stuff,” admitted McFarlane. “And I’m good at it. He is, too.”