In the final Oswego County Academic Youth League Competition, Biology was under the microscope in this event. Students in teams of 8-10 from eight school districts in Oswego County came together to showcase their knowledge in the field of Biology.
Four rigorous tasks centered around body systems, genetics, and microscopes, tested each team’s ability. The teams were asked to create a 3-D diagram of the human digestive system, identify the parts of a microscope and show their knowledge of its use in cell identification, complete a set of genetic questions and genetic disorder-based problems, and compete in a lightning round on a wide range of biology topics. In addition, team members took quizzes based on their knowledge of environmental problems, cells, animals, anatomy and physiology, and finally, plants. Each of the sections of the competition were time-sensitive, and earned points towards an overall total.
In the end judges and event coordinators tallied the results from each of the components of the competition and the team from Oswego earned the top spot and the gold medal. Team members included Aaric Celeste, Ben Dafoe, Abby Douglas, Lisa Kanbur, Ellie Lisec, Payton Reese, Katie Smith, Sarah Smolinski, Hannah Strzelinski, and Sophia Throop. The team is coached by Kayley Morse.
Second place silver medal was given to the team from Central Square with team members Jordan Concolino, Erin McCarthy, Alexis Grant, Mark Rio, Courtney Horne, Stephanie Kubis, Alex Lotito and Dalton Emory. The team is coached by Katlin Ginney.
In third place was the team from Mexico, earning the bronze medal. Team members include: Ashton Ariola, Katie Belcher, Logan Burrows, Kylene Fletcher, Tyler Grasso, Wyatt Jensen, Ben Pelow, Brendon Pullen, Liam Simko and Caitlin Spurling. The team is coached by Shannon Bigelow.
In addition, the overall championship award was presented to the team who had accumulated the highest point total for the 2016-17 season. The overall champion award was presented to the team from Mexico.
OCAY League is coordinated through the Center for Instruction, Technology and Innovation’s (CiTi) gifted and talented program and coordinated by Matthew Goodnough.
Gold medal winners for the fourth and final OCAY League competition of the season was the team from Oswego.
Central Square’s OCAY League team took the silver medal in the final competition of the season.
The team from Mexico earned the bronze medal in the biology-based OCAY League competition.
Mexico’s teams earned the highest point totals for the 2016-17 season and was named OCAY League overall champion 2017.
