Thomas Jefferson Middle School Wins Indiana State Science Olympiad Title

Thirteen seventh and eighth grade students from Thomas Jefferson Middle School, plus five ninth grade students from Valparaiso High School won the state title in the Indiana Science Olympiad on Saturday, April 2. The event was held at Purdue University Calumet in Hammond. Students from all corners of Indiana participated in this highly competitive event. TJMS won over seven first place medals in the 23 events. TJMS dominated in the engineering events winning four first and one second in the five events. The TJMS will represent Indiana at the National Science Olympiad on May 21 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The TJMS team is led by Coach Richard Bender and Assistant Coach Carol Haller, both science teachers at TJMS. Parents, high school students, former Science Olympiad members, and others from the community served as tutors, assistant coaches and mentors to the students The students included Josh Abatie, Moira Barrett, Ethan Biggs, Nick Bluhm, Kyle Dahlgren, Mark Davidson, Ankur Dhoot, Maddie Hathoot, Tim Henderson, Jacob Mills, Abby Mitchell, Anthony Nelson, Rainer Neis, Kyle Ott, Megan Rahn, Isaiah Smith, T. J. Woods, and Samantha Yaros.