From left, Sam Coots, Joanna December and Bryce Leddington received second place in the Codebuster Division during the 2026 Michigan Science Olympiad State Tournament at Michigan State University.
By: Sarah Wright | C&G Newspapers | Published June 9, 2026
UTICA/STERLING HEIGHTS — Two Bemis Junior High School teams earned two top medals at the 2026 Michigan Science Olympiad State Tournament, in the middle school division, on April 25 at Michigan State University.
Science Olympiad is a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) competition that has a wide variety of events that cover different science subjects.
“So, there’s life sciences, earth and space kind of science, some technology, some engineering with build events, some chemistry-type events, a lot of different events that the students compete in . . . and so there are 15 students on the team, and they usually compete in like two or three events,” said Michele Coots, a coach with the Bemis teams. “Each kid competes in a couple different events, and they have months to study and prepare for their particular event, and then it’s held on one day. Just one big competition, kind of like a track meet is the best way to describe it, where all of these events are just going on at the same time.”
During the 2026 Michigan Science Olympiad State Tournament, the team of Sam Coots, Joanna December and Bryce Leddington took second place in the Codebuster Division. Sam Coots and Joanna December took seventh place in Crime Busters.
“You need lots of discipline, motivation and hard work,” Leddington said. “Practice as often as you can and never give up, even if it feels like you’re never going to win. And, of course, when you have a good team and coach, it’s impossible not to accomplish something. Codebusters makes you think differently and approach things in a new way, which is what makes it special.”
In the Codebusters Division, students decoded as many encrypted messages as they were able to do in a 50-minute test, using a variety of deciphering techniques and cryptanalysis. The Bemis Codebusters team prepared for the test by learning ciphers, practicing their decoding and cryptanalysis techniques, and forming team strategy.
“We moved through a lot of mock tests, and then we’d practice individual ciphers, and we would divide up the test into specialities on ciphers, like who was best at what type,” Sam Coots said.
The Crime Busters competition is a chemistry and forensics event in which students were given a scenario of a crime, a collection of evidence and possible suspects. Students performed a series of qualitative analyses and used the test results, along with other evidence, to solve the crime and answer questions.
“Honestly, it was much more harder than we expected,” December said. “The year before we had placed fourth for states on Codebusters, and we decided to try and get higher than the year before, which wasn’t that easy of a task. Yet for Crime Busters, we did not suspect that we would place at all. But once our place was announced, you couldn’t even believe at how shocked Sam and I felt for placing so high for our first time doing it.”
All three team members appear to be interested in continuing Science Olympiad in high school, though they will not be going to the same schools.
For more information, visit uticak12.org.