UNION – Madelon Kelly teaches science at Medomak Middle School and is the proud coach for the Champion Science Olympiad. The Medomak team has won the Olympiad held at the University of Southern Maine for the fifth consecutive year, and on April 1, Coach Kelly and her 21 students took home 22 medals, as well as the first-place trophy.

The Medomak students held a car wash Saturday, April 29, at the Mic Mac Market, 994 Heald Highway, in Union, to help raise money so 15 student champions can travel to the 2017 Science Olympiad National Tournament at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, on May, 20.

The team is now looking to raise $12,000, or $800 per student. The amount will allow the students to travel, stay and compete in the 23 events at the Science Olympiad National Tournament.

Kelly said the team won the state tournament by a huge amount.

"At the state there are 15 events, but at the nationals there are 23," she said. "The way it's scored is that you get one point for first place, two points for second and so on, so the low score is the winner."

Kelly said a perfect score would have been 15.

"Belfast was third with 49 points," she said. "Waynflete School, which is a private school in Portland, was second with 46 and the Medomak Middle School had 19 points. We came in first in almost everything."

Kelly said some events are purely study. There is an anatomy and physiology event, during which the student must learn an immense amount and study college textbooks. This year is concentrated on the endocrine and nervous systems.

"I wrote to Bowdoin College to see if we could get them to see a human brain," she said. "They've been studying pictures and I'm a little worried that when they get there, they won't be able to identify structures from a real brain. Unfortunately, Bowdoin didn't have one available."

Kelly said there are events in meteorology and plate tectonics as well. And there is an event where you have to build something ahead of time.

"At the state level we did amazingly well with a car and the event is called scrambler," she said. "It’s called scrambler because the car has to have a raw egg on the front and the power has to come from a falling weight. It has to go around a bucket and come as close to wall as it can without breaking the egg."

Kelly said they move the wall so you never know ahead of time where the wall is going to be.

"You have to be able to calibrate the car on the spot," she said. "At the state competition, they measured the distance from the wall to the middle of the car. Our distance was zero and it didn't break the egg."

The divisions in competition are C and B. C is for high school and B is for middle school. Medomak covers grades six through nine, so some students are from the elementary school and some from the high school on the team, but the majority are from the middle school.

"The only reason any of this is even vaguely possible is because I have an amazing group of parents." Kelly said. "They help with things like this car wash and there's a bake sale as well. I have parents who help coaching some of the events. I can't do it all and I have these wonderful, wonderful parents who help. It's huge."

Kelly said she thought they were half way there with their fundraising.

"We still have a bit to go," she said. "The event is May 20. I know that's a lot to ask from these communities that are not wealthy, but I do believe that this is something that will change kid's lives forever."

To donate, send a check to the Medomak Middle School at 318 Manktown Rd, Waldoboro, ME 04572.