NYS Science Olympiad - the glory and the shame

My son recently had the opportunity to participate in the NYS Regional Competition for the National Science Olympiad.  It was the culmination of over 4 months of preparation and practice.  A team event-winning depended on all the kids working together as a whole.  The event was attended and eagerly participated in by regional schools, large and small, from the Rochester area.  Calvin participated at the "B Division" level - made up of grades 6-9 (essentially middle school kids).  When I say they worked hard - I really mean it.  The events these kids participate in range from building devices to passing tests on such diverse subjects as aquifers, oceanography and geology.  My son built a trebuchet (a kind of catapult) with his teammates.  They tossed a hacky sack over 15 meters across the St. John Fisher field house.  They had to resarch and build the device themselves, run all the tools to build it (with supervision of course) and also test fire and chart all the possible variations on weights of the payload and the counterweight (they didn't find out the weights of their payload and counterweight until they began the competition).