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CITY, ND – (NewsDakota.com) Valley City State University hosted a North Dakota Regional Science Olympiad competition on Thursday, March 24.

More than 500 students participated and were representing 26 teams from 19 high schools and 20 teams from 13 middle schools. The student teams participated in 23 different events in each division during the day-long competition.

“Some teams began preparing for these events as early as August, and all of them got serious about it in January,” said Teather Sundstrom, VCSU assistant professor of chemistry and regional Science Olympiad coordinator. “It’s good to see their hard work coming together at the regional.”

Sundstrom was assisted by fellow VCSU faculty member and students—along with team coaches—who ran the various events, which included bridge building, disease detectives, invasive species, hydrogeology, and protein modeling, among many others.

The VCSU regional is one of five regional competitions; others are held in Bismarck, Bottineau, Dickinson and Minot. Regional winners move on to the 2016 North Dakota State Science Olympiad to be held at North Dakota State University in Fargo on April 16.