On Nov. 22, the John Adams High School Science Olympiad team went to Northridge High School to compete in their first invitational. Overall, the team swept up the competition, taking second place! Out of 23 events, John Adams placed top eight in 20 of them, amongst 31 teams! 

The meets last the entirety of the day and start very early in the morning; around 6:30 a.m., everyone meets at the school to load up on the bus and head out. Around 7a.m to 7:30 a.m., the team arrives at the school and brings everything from the bus into the building. First thing at the school, before any of the events start, certain events like air trajectory or bungee, have to do something called impound. Impound is where students take the machine or item to the event site so that the people running the event can check to make sure everything fits within the guidelines. 

At Northridge, a lot of teams were fascinated with the large library, so in between events, most people went to hang out there (also because that was the only place with wifi). First and second block people were scrambling since it was the first meet of the season, there were binders and bags galore and people studying and preparing left and right. After the third block there was a lunch break where the concessions sold things such as pizza, pretzels and much more. Finally, the last three blocks came and went and it was time for the award ceremony. 

Not only were there high schools there, there were middle schools as well! The awards ceremony consists of multiple people handing out first through eighth place ribbons followed by calling out each event for either division B (middle school) or division C (high school). Lastly, they call out teams for each place.  After all the fun and excitement of the day, the team went and wound down at a nice Mexican restaurant called “Margaritas” and made it home around 9 p.m.