More than 1,800 students, teachers and parents will converge at Foothill High School Saturday for the Bay Area Science Olympiad.

It's the fifth year in a row that Foothill will be hosting the competition, which has teams competing in 23 different events covering biology, chemistry and physics.

In all, 76 teams from 42 area high schools are scheduled to compete, with the students deciding who will compete in which events. They will be broken into two-person teams, with some events lasting an hour and others taking all day.

The Olympiad runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with an awards ceremony at 4:30. Four events featuring robot arms, elastic-launched gliders, boom levers and magnetic levitation racetracks – are open to the public.

Students who win will move on to the state finals on April 13; the state winners will compete against other states at Wright State University
in Dayton, Ohio in May.

Foothill has made the state finals three times in recent years and is hoping for a return trip.

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