Manhattan High’s Science Olympiad team has come far in both its studies and performances at competition. Now, the coaches have introduced a new class with the hope of going even further.

“When we first started Science Olympiad I really didn’t think it was possible to have everybody get medals at state. I just didn’t think it was possible,” Science Olympiad coach Pat Lamb said. “The two years before that when we got 13 out of 15 in the top, oh my god, that was just unbelievable. I felt bad for these guys because I just didn’t think they could live up to it but then they got 15 out of 15. You can’t do much better than that.”

Year after year students have tested into the school’s Science Olympiad team and year after year, students continue to improve.

This year the coaches, Lamb, Craig Ackerman and Richard Nelson, are teaching a new class, Honors Science Investigation.

“We’ve done about as well as we can do just meeting on Saturdays. Our students have done everything we’ve asked… We thought, as teachers, we had to change something. So we decided to have a course and meet every day instead of just two hours on the weekend,” Lamb said. ”This is our very first year so I definitely hope they enjoy it and that they see it as a real benefit.”

After junior Rebekah Hennesy was on the team her sophomore year, she decided to sign up for the class.

”I feel like it’s going to be a really great opportunity and you’ll have a set amount of time where you can study,” Hennesy said. ”I think it will definitely benefit the team. Not the entire team is in the class but there are a lot of members and you’ll be able to see everyone more regularly.”

Senior Jacob Steward agrees.

”I was in Science Olympiad last year and I decided it would be pretty fun,” Steward said. ”I think it will help us because before we only had a couple hours to practice and now we have like an hour each day. This year should be pretty fun. Hopefully we can get to nationals in Lincoln [Nebraska].”

Honors Science Investigation will include Science and Biology Olympiad, Envirothon and Ecomeet participants. Students will study many aspects of science including engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, earth science and even scientific inquiry. So far, students have been taking tests and studying fundamentals such as significant figures, factor labeling, statistics and metric conversions.

Nationals is also already on the minds of many past Science Olympiad members.

“I want us to go to nationals this year,” Hennesy said. “We were really close last year, we almost made it. I think it’s definitely achievable.”

Lamb is also eager to start.

”I’m always excited.” Lamb said. “I like competing and I’m very competitive. And we’ve got great people. I’m biased and I’ll be the first to admit it but I think Manhattan kids are tough. They’re tough in a good way, they’re mentally tough. In sports and academics…when it gets hard they really buckle up and rise to the occasion. They’re tough kids and I’m proud of them.”

All the coaches and many students have high hopes this year.

”It’s always good to have goals and when you have goals you want to accomplish them. And there’s only one goal we have right now that we haven’t attained and that’s the one we’re after,” Lamb said. “I hope we do a little better than last year. We want to win. We want to go to nationals.”