KETTERING, Ohio (WDTN) — Two Miami Valley students from St. Charles Borromeo School are celebrating their big state win this past weekend in meteorology.
Nathan Keltos, 6th grader at St. Charles Borromeo School, said, “I was super happy.”
The 5th place finish by Nathan Kelton and Lily Best didn’t happen without hard work. Beginning in September, they have been studying for the meteorology category of the Science Olympiad, and this past weekend were tested on their knowledge.
Being in a smaller school they don’t have the resources other schools may, making the victory even sweeter.
Lily Best, 8th grader at St. Charles Borromeo School, said, “It was cool to beat some of the bigger schools that have more preparation and things.”
Nathan suggests maybe he should be a meteorologist in the future, and got his passion, not from school, but a storm chasing video game.
He said, “There was a video game I played, and I was like, ‘Hey, this is kind of cool. Maybe I should learn about the real thing.’ so then I learned about it and was like, ‘Hey, this is cool.’ and then it just kind of branched out.”
Nathan decided he wanted to be in the olympiad because of his love for science.
He said, “Well, it’s because I have a deep love for science, and I find it really enjoyable.”
Lily wants to further her science education, and the Science Olympiad opens your eyes to an array of different fields.
She said, “Science Olympiad, there are so many different topics, and so you’re in like multiple events and it’s really cool because then I can see what I like and what I want to do.”
Being part of the process and seeing kids’ love for a science topic is worth all of it for the coaches.
Chris, Bigelow, St. Charles Borromeo School Science Teacher and Science Olympiad Coach, said, “We try to guide and coach as much as possible, but for some of them it’s simply turning them loose on the information, and so for a meteorology team, they ran with it on their own.”
Phoebe Irwin and Evan Sharbaugh took home 4th in the “Write it, Do it” category.
