On Oct. 17, 2024, the annual BioScience Olympics, a bonding event organized by the BioScience Academy, took place at Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech). The event included many games and activities that the students competed in from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Three groups competed: the Cohort 21 sophomores, the Cohort 20 juniors and the Cohort 19 seniors. They all competed for the “Golden Crutch” the “Silver Crutch” and the “Walker” as prizes for first, second and third place. The groups got into the spirit of the event with chants, face-paint and glitter, having the chance to earn extra points when cheering for their Cohort.
Xiomara De La Torres ‘26 described her feelings on the event, saying “What I liked about BioScience Olympics is that all the cohorts were all able to bond because most of the time we’re kind of separate from each other … I feel it’s beneficial to all of us; I enjoy it.”
The students of BioScience set up most of the event, with a group of them meeting weekly to plan the activities. The event included several competitions such as a relay race, a “save the baby” scavenger hunt, jeopardy and finally, a game of pictionary. Even before the games, each Cohort had the chance to earn extra “pregame” points by contributing to spirit weeks or donating to coin drives.
Mika Anderson, head director of BioScience, described planning the event, stating, “It’s planned by the leadership teams there is a committee designated to do bonding, and it[‘s] the bonding committee who had been meeting every Thursday in order to plan this.”
Daniel Baker, the other BioScience director, explained what the event does for the academy, saying, “It’s to build cohort bonding within cohorts and make friendly competition between the three cohorts and skills that they learn in the academy … the students have planned it all out, I know the big picture, but they plan all the details.”
To begin the competition, was the relay race, where participants had to suit up and securely strap a teammate onto a backboard to race across half of the quad and set them down. Then, they needed to repeatedly fill a beaker with a water-soaked sponge until it was full. Next, they were required to walk to the next station, while balancing a petri dish on their head. Once they arrived, their teammate had to walk through a set of cones with crutches, and then, going back, they had to take part in a three-legged race to cross to the finish line.
The “save the baby” scavenger hunt started with one clue to lead the students around the school, where they had to solve riddles and get certain materials that they needed to save a baby. Once they had these materials, they had to do a certain procedure to complete the challenge, in order to “save the baby.”
Jeopardy included five categories: microbiology, biotech survey, medtech, biotech and staffulty. Each group brought up two representatives for each round of jeopardy, and every time they answered, it had to be in the form of a question. The questions were based on what they had been learning in class, and they also had questions based on certain science teachers.
Pictionary was the last event of the evening, which consisted of one artist and three guessers from each Cohort who would come up and try to guess the drawings, then switch students after each round. By the last round of the activity, Cohort 19 led with 17,820 points, Cohort 20 trailed behind with 11,451 points and Cohort 21 came in last with 7,630 points. However, in this final round, the groups had one last chance to win by wagering their points. During this final round of pictionary, Cohort 20 bet 11,450 points and won, surpassing both Cohort 19 and Cohort 21.
Due to the controversial nature of this win, Cohort 19 was provided with a final opportunity to win by introducing another round of pictionary which Cohort 20 won, making them one of the only junior Cohorts to win the Bioscience Olympics. As the scoreboard read, Cohort 21 earned zero points, Cohort 19 earned 16,820 points and Cohort 20 earned 22,901 points, winning the “Golden Crutch.”
While the outcome of the night might have been unconventional, the true success of the Bioscience Olympics lay in the strengthened bonds formed among the students, fostering a sense of community and collaboration that will continue beyond the competition itself. A new age was set upon Bioscience as students left for the night, paving the way for the rest of the year to come.
