The North Carolina Science Olympiad (NCSO) will hold the annual Wilmington Regional Science Olympiad contest on UNC Wilmington’s campus in Trask Coliseum on Saturday.

NCSO is a national organization aimed at middle and high school students interested in STEM. The event consists of middle and high school students, broken up into teams of 18 students each that participate in approximately 20 events as a team. The events range from engineering events to chemistry labs, to paper or pencil tests about a STEM-related topic.

Students win medals for each event they place in, and the best overall teams win trophies for their schools. The top percentage of winners advance to the state level, and whoever wins there goes to nationals.

“The events are all the same at the different levels, just a higher level of difficulty,” said Katherine Martin, the lead teacher for middle school and high school mathematics and science for the New Hanover County Schools.

According to the NCSO website, this program has been running since the 1970s. This year, approximately 1,200 middle and high school students from the region will be participating.

The event includes several partners, one of the largest being Michelle Hafey, the program associate at the Center for Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at the Watson College of Education. She serves as the tournament’s regional director.

Martin explained how students practice all school year for this tournament. She is excited to see what the students will accomplish this year.

“NCSO really appeals to students with a variety of interests in the STEM field,” Martin said. “It gives them an outlet to show off their skills in a fun and challenging way.”

The Olympiad is an all-day event and many individual events are open to spectators. For a full schedule, click here.