Nathaniel Bruner didn't mind spending Saturday talking about science. As a matter of fact, he looked forward to it.

"I've always liked science," said the 15-year-old Westside High School student. "With Science Olympiad, we cover topics from biology and chemistry to physics and engineering. It's all-encompassing. I just think science is a really cool subject. I couldn't wait to see how much I could do in this competition."

Nathaniel was one of 30 students from Westside and Lakeside high schools who participated in the Westside High School Annual Local Competition.

Rebecca Potter, Westside's Science Olympiad coach, organized the competition last year to help area teams prepare for regional competitions.

"There are local competitions in the Atlanta and Macon areas, but what I found was that there wasn't anything like that in the southeastern part of Georgia," she said. "For many of the teams in this area, that meant practicing all year long for one competition, the regional competition.

"It's just like in football. No team wants to practice all year only to play in one game."

Science Olympiad competitions consist of 23 individual and team events in three categories: academic, lab and engineering. The local competition was modeled after the regional competition, but without the engineering category and with fewer events. It featured physics lab, chemistry lab, health science, forensic science, cell biology and "Picture This," a science Pictionary event.

"The local competition is a reality check," Ms. Potter said. "Sometimes you discover that you don't know some topics as well as you thought, but this gives you time to improve in those areas in time for regional competition."

Rahul Prasad, 15, enjoyed participating in Picture This.

"I didn't know how well I would do," said the Lakeside team member. "It's hard trying to draw science terms, but it's a neat challenge. This is one of my events for the regional competition, so I got an idea of how I can improve my drawing next time."

Westside placed first in the physics and chemistry lab competitions. Lakeside placed first in health science, forensic science, cell biology and Picture This.