A happy group of almost 30 middle school students headed off to the bowling alley 300 in mid-April as a reward for their diligence in selling raffle tickets for last year’s Harker Family & Alumni Picnic. To win the half-day outing, students had to sell 120 tickets or more. Their reward was an afternoon at the alleys with snacks!
Over spring break, the middle school’s forensics team competed in the Novice Nationals Debate Tournament in Georgia, adding to their already impressive season. Three members of the debate team, Pranav Reddy, grade 8, Sophia Luo, grade 7 and Lisa Liu, grade 7, traveled between March 28 and April 2 to compete against high school students at the tournament.
Reddy competed in the Lincoln-Douglas events, winning three matches, and adding to his already impressive year, which included a stand out performance at the UC Berkeley tournament earlier this year. The Liu/Luo policy team won two debates and are already preparing for the end of the year event in June.
The middle school debate teams and classes are currently being taught by Karina Momary. Momary, who is enjoying her first year with the teams, looks forward to building stronger and stronger forensics teams by encouraging the middle school teams to continue competing against high school teams. This is the middle school forensics team’s first year traveling to multiple tournaments.
For more information about the middle school debate team and their plans for continuing success, contact Karina Momary at KarinaM@harker.org.
Radio host Sam Van Zandt of KBAY came to Harker prior to the Synopsys Championship Fair to talk to Harker students about their projects. Listen to the interviews here!
Harker once again won a host of awards at this year’s Synopsys Championship Fair, held March 6-7. Two upper school students, Revanth Kosaraju, grade 11 (“A Novel Perfusion-Based Protocol for Decellularization of Adipose Tissue on a Bioreactor”) and Vikas Bhetanabhotla , grade 9 (“A Theoretical Study of Factors Affecting Molecular Specificity in Hyperpolarized MRI Scans”) both won grand prizes and eligibility for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Bhetanabhotla, a member of the research club, was mentored by Kosaraju.
Harker had many more winners in several different categories at the fair at the high school level. In physics, Prag Batra, grade 11, won a $75 special award and certificate from Varian Medical Systems and a $400 team award from the Genencor Biotechnology Awards along with partner Govinda Dasu, grade 11, who also won the Varian Medical Systems special award. In addition to his grand prize, Bhetanabhotla also won a First Award for individual project in the physics category and certificate of achievement from the NASA-Ames Research Center, which included a VIP visit to the facilities. Varun Mohan, grade 9, earned a $100 prize and a certificate from Trimble Navigation, while Avinash Nayak, grade 9, took home a PW460t digital camera from Hewlett-Packard and a second place award with a $75 cash prize and certificate from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering. Christopher Sund and Ravi Tadinada, both grade 10, each won First Awards.
Paulomi Bhattacharya, grade 10, was Harker’s biggest winner in Environmental Sciences, winning a First Award for individual project, a Certificate of Achievement from the NASA-Ames Research Center with a VIP visit, a certificate and medallion from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a $50 gift certificate and Certificate of Achievement from the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Zareen Choudhury, grade 9, received an Honorable Mention for her individual project. Payal Modi, grade 10, received the third place award high school award and a $25 prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Daniel Ryan Pak, grade 9, received a certificate of achievement in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize contest, as well as a chance to move on to the competition in Stockholm, Sweden.
In chemistry, Shreya Nathan, grade 12, won a First Award for individual project, a third place $25 prize and certificate from the Society of Vacuum Coaters, a third place award and $100 prize from the Santa Clara Valley local section of the American Chemical Society and a second place award of $75 from the Santa Clara Valley chapter of A Society for Materials (ASM). Suchita Nety, grade 10, earned a Second Award for individual project, a $50 prize from the San Jose State University from the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society and a first place $100 award and certificate from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering. Pooja Shah, grade 10, received an Honorable Mention Award and certificate from the ASM Santa Clara Valley chapter.
Winners in the medicine/health/gerontology category included Lucy Cheng and Ramya Rangan, both grade 11, who received an honorable mention for team project, Varun Gudapati, grade 10, who earned an honorable mention for individual project, and Anika Radiya-Dixit, grade 10, winner of a Second Award for individual project.
Frederic Enea, grade 11, took home a Second Award for individual project in the engineering category, along with a certificate of achievement from the United States Army. Other engineering winners were Divyahans Gupta, grade 9, who received a certificate of achievement from Mu Alpha Theta; Vikram Sundar, grade 9, earning a Second Award for individual project as well as a $100 first prize award from Morgan Lewis; and Kiran Vodrahalli, grade 12, who won a First Award for individual project, a $100 first place high school award from the Northern California chapter of the American Vacuum Society, a $50 check and certificate from the Wireless Communications Alliance, a prize package from the United States Air Force (which included a certificate, charging stand, computer backpack and more) and the IEEE Award for Electro-Technology from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Harker had two winners in the biochemistry/microbiology category. Anika Gupta, grade 9, won a Second Award for individual project, while, in addition to his grand prize, Kosaraju earned a First Award for individual project and was a finalist for the Synopsys Outreach Foundation’s n+1 Prize.
In botany, Claudia Tischer, grade 9, received a Second Award for individual project, and in computers/mathematics, Rahul Sridhar, grade 9, won a First Award for individual project, a $75 award and certificate from Varian Medical Systems and a $100 first prize from Morgan Lewis. Abhinav Khanna, grade 11, received a First Award for individual project in the behavioral/social category.
At the middle school level, Sneha Behtanabhotla, grade 6, won a First Award for individual project in the physics category, as well as a certificate of achievement from the Ricoh Corporation and a grades 6-8 certificate of achievement and Office of Naval Research medallion from the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Also in physics, Rishabh Jain and Neil Movva, both grade 8, were given a Second Award for team project, a certificate of achievement from the NASA-Ames Research Center and a VIP visit, and grades 6-8 second place award, with a $75 prize from the Santa Clara Valley chapter of A Society for Materials.
Nikash Shankar, grade 8, came up big in the medicine/health/gerontology category, taking home a First Award for individual project, an Isabelle Stone Award for Best Biological Science Projects, and a Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association Board of Directors Award (Middle School), which included a trip to the state science fair and a $100 cash prize. Classmate Sriram Somasundaram was also a winner in this category, earning a First Award for individual project.
In environmental sciences, eighth grader Vineet Kosaraju received an honorable mention for individual project, a grade 6-9 second place award with a $50 cash prize from the Society of Vacuum Coaters and a first place award from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, which included a $100 cash prize and a framed certificate.
Andrew Jin and Stanley Xie, both grade 8, took home the First Award for team project in the biochemistry/microbiology category. Classmate Pranav Reddy, meanwhile, won a First Award for individual project, as did Steven Wang, another grade 8 student, who also earned a first place award for grades 6-9, which included a $75 cash prize and a certificate from the Society of Vacuum Coaters.
Samyukta Yagat, grade 8, won a First Award for individual project in botany, where Archana Podury, also grade 8, received an Honorable Mention for individual project.
Sixth grader Amrita Singh earned a Second Award for individual project in the zoology category and also won a second place award from the Northern California branch of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, which included a certificate and a $125 cash prize.
Special credit goes to upper school science teachers Richard Barber and Chris Spenner and middle school science teachers Lorna Claerbout, Ilona Davies, Scott Kley Contini, Benjamin Morgensen, Daniel Sommer and Raji Swaminathan, who were all instrumental in Harker’s success this year.
Tags: Featured Story, Science, topresearch, topscienceRaji Swaminathan’s science class was visited by two IBM scientists on April 5. This was Don Chamberlin’s fourth visit, in his ongoing effort to encourage more students to study engineering and sciences, specifically hoping to bring more women into the engineering field. Accompanying Don Chamberlin was his son, Steve Chamberlin, who is currently a software engineer at IBM.
Don Chamberlin, who has an electrical engineering Ph.D. from Stanford and worked at IBM for 38 years, led the class in a discussion of the “cool” and “not cool” aspects of studying and pursuing a career in engineering. After the discussion, the class conducted activities using binary numbers and learning about the differences between analog and digital. To wrap up the class, Chamberlin showed the class a video made by his IBM colleague John Cohn, who used rap music to encourage burgeoning engineers to continue studying engineering.
For more information, contact Swaminathan at RajiS@harker.org.
Tags: ScienceIn early April Pat Walsh, lower school math teacher, had a pair of engineers from IBM and the Harker community visit his classes. Eric Butler ’81 and Dianne Reese, mother of Greg and Phil Perkins, ’05 and ’07 respectively, came to give students a view of what engineering is all about and how math plays a big part in engineering. Here is fifth grader Ben Hyver’s special report to Harker News Online on the visit.
On Fri., April 8, two former Harker students who now work at IBM as engineers visited Pat Walsh’s math classes. Presenting the interesting topic of Mars rovers, Mr. Butler and Ms. Reese used an NXT-bot to model the real machine that would be sent up to different planets. Our experiment in the classroom consisted of a challenging obstacle course in which we would have to program the rover to steer around. To do this, we would measure the distance from here to there, find the circumference of the wheel, then divide the two. This would give us the number of rotations we needed to complete the movement. After, it would turn and continue on with the program. Watching with amazement, Mr. Walsh’s students were enlightened and inspired by these engineers as they practically demonstrated math to work in space technology. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to experience Mr. Butler and Ms. Reese’s Mars Rover model as this provided a beneficial forty-two minutes of learning and fun.
Tags: Featured Story, Mathematics, ScienceWith spirit week in full swing and the weather clearing up nicely, Wednesday’s long lunch was enjoyed on Davis Field while spectators viewed the annual powder puff football game. Two all-female teams, one made up of grades 9 and 12, the other made up of grades 10 and 11, faced off in a game of flag football, with the sophomores and juniors utilizing a combination of passing and rushing to secure a 12-0 victory.
Sports attire was worn all over the upper school in keeping with the day’s theme. On Monday, students, faculty and staff could be seen wearing pajamas and slippers and participating in a sleeping bag race for “PJ Day,” and Tuesday featured all manner of brightly colored and obnoxiously patterned clothing for the theme of “Would You Be My Friend if I Wore This Every Day?” which featured a lunchtime balloon stomp. Cowboy hats, boots, flannel shirts, oversized belt buckles and scarves were the style du jour for Thursday’s “Wild West Day,” with students taking to the water at the Singh Aquatic Center for the duct tape regatta. On Friday, students will dress in their class colors and participate in the much-anticipated spirit rally.
Tags: Featured StoryIn February, Harker was host for this year’s Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education conference, which had 60 participants from schools from all over the country, including Dallas, Miami and New York. One school even made the trip from Colombia to attend the conference.
The conference was held so that schools from different areas could discuss the topic of academic integrity and share what measures they have taken to preserve it. “It’s really great for a small group of kids who’re on an honor council to see that other kids at different schools are having the same issues,” said Kevin Williamson, dean of students at the upper school. “So it’s a great way to talk about how they resolve these somewhat sticky situations.” The conference also featured a special presentation by Stanford University’s Judicial Council.
Harker Honor Council members helped organize the event, led discussion groups and also showed the visitors around the campus. The guests were impressed with Harker’s facilities and food services, and the event was such a success that the Honor Council is discussing the possibility of creating its own academic integrity conference for next year.
Two teams of Harker students had stellar performances at this year’s Japan Bowl, held in Washington, D.C. The Japan Bowl is a competition in which students are tested on their understanding of Japanese language and culture, including topics such as history, performing arts, geography, fashion and current events.
Harker’s level III team, made up of Crystal Chen, grade 11, Shilpa Nataraj, also grade 11 and Kimberly Ma, grade 9, took second place.
Meanwhile, the level IV team of Tiffany Jang, grade 11, Victoria Liang, grade 12 and Lorraine Wong, grade 10, became the national champions at their level of competition. The team was awarded a trip to Japan, the schedule of which is yet to be determined due to circumstances stemming from the earthquake and tsunami that hit the northern part of Japan’s Honshu island last month.
This is the second time a Harker team has won a Japan Bowl championship, following a previous win in 2009.
Tags: Featured Story, In the News, LanguagesTwo teams of Harker students had stellar performances at this year’s Japan Bowl, held in Washington, D.C. The Japan Bowl is a competition in which students are tested on their understanding of Japanese language and culture, including topics such as history, performing arts, geography, fashion and current events.
Harker’s level III team, made up of Crystal Chen, grade 11, Shilpa Nataraj, also grade 11 and Kimberly Ma, grade 9, took second place.
Meanwhile, the level IV team of Tiffany Jang, grade 11, Victoria Liang, grade 12 and Lorraine Wong, grade 10, became the national champions at their level of competition. The team was awarded a trip to Japan, the schedule of which is yet to be determined due to circumstances stemming from the earthquake and tsunami that hit the northern part of Japan’s Honshu island last month.
This is the second time a Harker team has won a Japan Bowl championship, following a previous win in 2009.
Tags: Featured Story, In the News, LanguagesTwo teams of Harker students had stellar performances at this year’s Japan Bowl, held in Washington, D.C. The Japan Bowl is a competition in which students are tested on their understanding of Japanese language and culture, including topics such as history, performing arts, geography, fashion and current events.
Harker’s level III team, made up of Crystal Chen, grade 11, Shilpa Nataraj, also grade 11 and Kimberly Ma, grade 9, took second place.
Meanwhile, the level IV team of Tiffany Jang, grade 11, Victoria Liang, grade 12 and Lorraine Wong, grade 10, became the national champions at their level of competition. The team was awarded a trip to Japan, the schedule of which is yet to be determined due to circumstances stemming from the earthquake and tsunami that hit the northern part of Japan’s Honshu island last month.
This is the second time a Harker team has won a Japan Bowl championship, following a previous win in 2009.
Tags: Featured Story, In the News, Languages