For the 23rd year, the Texas A&M University College of Arts and Sciences hosted the finale of the 2025 Texas Science Olympiad season, where 1,000 students from middle and high schools around the state put their science and engineering skills to the test.
The event, which took place this month around the Brazos Valley and on the Texas A&M campus, featured 60 teams—30 in the middle school division and 30 in the high school division. Each team had to qualify for the state competition from one of several regional tournaments across Texas in early spring.
The finale events took place April 11 at The Brazos County Expo Center, and April 12 in the Instructional Laboratory and Innovating Learning Building, among others. It concluded with an awards ceremony at Rudder Auditorium where teams advancing to the national tournament were announced.
On both days, teams competed in events that tested their teamwork and knowledge in science, engineering, criminology, astronomy and more. From constructing the longest-flying projectiles and designing electrical energy vehicles to decoding encrypted messages and detecting diseases, teams displayed an impressive combination of information comprehension and application in each timed event.
The event was supported by a team of coordinators, judges and volunteers made up of Texas A&M faculty, staff and students along with help from the alumni chapters at UT-Austin and UT-Dallas. With her Olympiad team, Rhiannon Kliesing, Olympiad state director and ArtSci associate director for Outreach and Engagement, coordinated with each participating school around the state, working to ensure everyone had a positive experience in Aggieland.
“Texas Science Olympiad state tournament is a huge event that so many students look forward to every year,” Kliesing said. “It is the culmination of their practice and preparation throughout the school year where they get the chance to show off their knowledge and skills against the best teams in the state.”
View photos of the 2025 Texas Science Olympiad by Chris Jarvis, College of Arts and Sciences.
The competition was split into two divisions, with grades 6-9 in Division B and 9-12 in Division C. The event concluded with Beckendorff Junior High and BASIS Cedar Park taking first and second place in Division B, and Liberal Arts and Science Academy and Seven Lakes High School taking first and second place in Division C. These teams will advance to the 2025 Science Olympiad National Tournament, held on May 23-24 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
“Science Olympiad encourages students to take more STEM courses and is a great extracurricular activity to put on a resume,” Kliesing said. “There are many alumni chapters at colleges and universities in the state that participants can join to continue their involvement in Science Olympiad after high school and give back to the next generation.”
Science Olympiad is a non-profit organization that promotes hands-on science learning, teamwork and academic excellence among K-12 students. The first annual Science Olympiad National Tournament, held in 1985, was hosted by Michigan State University with only 17 participating states. Now, the Olympiad supports 6,000 teams from all 50 states in over 425 annual tournaments—many of which are hosted on college campuses like Texas A&M — offering students opportunities to expand their scientific knowledge beyond the classroom.
To learn more about the Science Olympiad organization, visit https://www.soinc.org/