N. HOLLYWOOD WINS SCIENCE OLYMPIAD.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - North Hollywood High School took top honors Saturday at the 14th annual Science Olympiad, winning its second science competition in two weeks.

More than 100 school teams, from elementary through high school, participated in the all-day Olympiad at California State University, Northridge, competing in categories ranging from creating the most powerful bottle rocket to answering tough science trivia questions.

``This is the kind of thing that put America on the moon in the first place,'' said Chris Johnson, a seasoned science teacher from Culver City Middle School. ``The kids are learning skills that stay with them forever and could inspire them to get a well-paying job in engineering someday.''

Nearby, two seventh-graders from the school's science club, Ricky Marcus and Taylor Manuel, were making careful calculations in the trajectory competition.

The object was to get their 2-foot-high catapult made of wood and iron to launch a tennis ball several meters through the air and land it squarely in the middle of a sandy circle 3 feet in diameter.

With goggles on, the boys did a NASA-like countdown and let it rip to the exploding applause of bystanders as the projectile landed just inches from the target's center.

``Science is my favorite subject,'' an undeterred Manuel said. ``It's totally fun making stuff and seeing it work right.''

Like most of the 1,200 other elementary, middle and high school students in the competition, he joined the science club at school to take part in similar events around the county.

``It's good for kids to be active in something competitive like this,'' said Donald Jacobs, a CSUN science professor volunteering as a judge for the event. ``Those that spent the most time and effort preparing are the ones that did the best, and they learn a lot from that experience.''

A team of Montara Elementary School students who came from South Gate for the event said they used their combined knowledge to take on other teams.

They took a quick break from a competition using mirrors to reflect laser beams to give interviews to the press.

``We learned a lot of stuff today,'' said Vanessa Sanchez, a Montara second-grader. ``We did pretty good, but there's a lot of other smart kids here.''

Her teammates were fourth-grader Jovana Cortez and fifth-graders Lucio Murillo and Christian Ramirez.

Second place in the senior division went to Arcadia High School, followed by third-place Palos Verdes Peninsula High School.

In past years, the competition was held at various high schools, but it was transferred for the first time to CSUN this year because of the growing number of participants, said Dean Gilbert, an event organizer and senior consultant with the county Office of Education.

Teams with the best performance in each event received ribbons, and teams with the most points overall will compete in the statewide Science Olympiad on April 8 at California State University, Long Beach, to qualify for a national competition, Jacobs said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo: Royal Oak students Monica Mora, left, Marcia Japutra and Anna Owaki, all 12, put their water clock through its paces.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer