Last month, Kathy Peng’s grade 7 science students made fidget spinners as a lesson in Newton’s laws of motion. Peng prepared the exercise as a challenge in which teams of students designed and created their own version of the toy, which became popular this past spring. Users spin the toy using one of the prongs that protrude from its center.
Each team was tasked with creating a fidget spinner that spun for as long as possible. Teams were given two weeks to complete the project, during which they had access to the 3D printers at the middle school campus Innovation Lab. Students also created analysis documents tracking their design, testing and iteration processes, which enabled them to “explain the physics behind their project, and reflect on their group’s teamwork, design and testing process and future ideas,” Peng said.
Peng designed and executed the fidget spinner project as part of the LID (Learning, Innovation and Design) Grant program, which provides opportunities for teachers to bolster their teaching methods. “Doing a LID grant is doubly awesome because you get to learn a new skill or technology that’s transferable to future instruction, and prepare a lesson or project that you can implement in the coming school year,” said Peng. “So you gain not only theoretical knowledge, which is cool, but you also develop something that is immediately applicable.”
The fidget spinner exercise, Peng hopes, will help students “see how physics is everywhere and that an understanding of science, engineering and design can be not only useful but also fun.”
For more on this subject, check out the winter issue of Harker Magazine coming to mailboxes at the end of December. In the article, Sophomores Speak, the Class of 2016 weighs in on some of the pitfalls, challenges and fun of that first year in college.
At yesterday’s LIFE (Living with Intent, Focus and Enthusiasm) assembly, seniors had the opportunity to hear from Harker alumni about their college experiences, and what to expect and look forward to once they reach college. Nikhil Panu ’13, a recent graduate of Johns Hopkins University, was joined by three additional alumni who spoke to the students via Skype: Haley Tran ’17, currently at Stanford; Sheridan Tobin ’15, now in her third year at the University of Michigan; and Sean Pan ’14, studying at the University of Washington.
Speaking on the idea of getting into the “college of your dreams,” Panu related the story of how he seemed all set to enter MIT upon graduating from Harker before things fell through. Initially disappointed, he eventually ended up at Johns Hopkins, which he found was very receptive to his dream of playing college basketball. “It was really cool to be wanted,” he said. Furthermore, he later found out that MIT might not have been a great fit for him anyway, saying, “You’ll find your ways to make things work.”
Tobin chose Michigan because it matched up with her desire to find a college that offered opportunities to explore many interests. Pan said he did not consider UW a primary option when searching for colleges, but later found out it was the better fit for his goals.
On the topic of adjusting to college life, Tran said, “A big part of adjusting to college is the scheduling,” noting that college students have more autonomy and choices about how to spend their time, which they may find difficult at first. The lessons students learned at Harker on how to schedule time effectively, she said, could prove very useful to them.
The alumni also shared some of the spontaneous things they’ve done so far during their college years. Panu went on a number of road trips and also started a company called Squadz, which he described as “Airbnb for sports and recreation.” He came up with the idea while on a flight from San Francisco to Baltimore. Before his junior year at UW, Pan went on a road trip that hit Montana, Salt Lake City, Tahoe and the Bay Area.
Seniors also were advised on campus safety practices, including making sure that friends stay aware of one another’s status and whereabouts, using apps such as Uber for transportation, and making use of campus support lines and other resources.
Students in attendance also were encouraged to use college as a way to seek out new interests. Panu mentioned the variety of electives that colleges offer, and Tobin mentioned that her goals for college changed after she had spent time exploring opportunities. “What I thought I wanted to do when I was applying was different from what I did,” she said. “Even if you think you know what you want to do, take things because you think they’re interesting.”
Watch for our feature article, Sophomores Speak: That First Year of College, in the upcoming issue of Harker Magazine. It will arrive in mailboxes in late December.
Over the winter break, senior Swapnil Garg and junior Katherine Tian were covered by the San Jose Mercury News for their performance in the 2017 Siemens Competition, which earned them a trip to the national finals in December.
Nov. 6, 2017:
Swapnil Garg, grade 12, and Katherine Tian, grade 11, are off to the Siemens Competition national finals! Their project – titled “Automated Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma Grade Classification with Prognostic Significance” – was selected as one of six team projects that will be considered for top honors at the final stage of the competition, held Dec. 4-5 in Washington, D.C. There, the two students will be eligible to win up to $100,000 in scholarship prizes, split evenly between them. As finalists, the pair are guaranteed a minimum $25,000 prize.
Oct. 18, 2017:
Congratulations to senior Swapnil Garg and junior Katherine Tian, who were just named two of the 101 regional finalists in this year’s Siemens Competition! They each will receive a $1,000 scholarship prize and are eligible to compete at the regional finals for the opportunity to advance to the National Finals in Washington, D.C. Best of luck!
Oct. 17, 2017:
Today, the Siemens Foundation named 10 Harker students regional semifinalists in the 2017 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, the most from any California school. Each year, individual and team research projects from six regions are selected to be semifinalists.
Harker’s semifinalists in the 2017 competition are Cynthia Chen and Jin Tuan, grade 10; Erin Liu, Ashwin Rammohan, Katherine Tian, Laura Wu and Katherine Zhang, grade 11; and Amy Dunphy, Swapnil Garg and Amy Jin, grade 12.
These 10 students are among the 491 semifinalists nationwide chosen from more than 1,860 projects submitted. Each of the semifinalists’ projects will be evaluated to determine which students will be named regional finalists, who in November will enter into six regional competitions. Winners from the regional finals events are eligible to attend in the National Finals, held at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where finalists will compete for $500,000 in scholarships.
The finalists announcement is set to take place tomorrow. Stay tuned!
Seventh grader Grant Sims’ video submission to the 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge was ranked among the top 5 percent in the competition. Sims’ video, a quick and informative look at stem cells, can be viewed on YouTube. More than 3,000 original videos were submitted for the annual competition, in which students aged 13-18 were tasked with creatively illustrating scientific and mathematical concepts.
The Harker community pulled together last week to help those affected by the fires in the North Bay, and had the surprise help of an alumna working in disaster relief.
Following the cancellation of the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic in mid-October, the school decided to donate picnic ticket sales receipts to relief efforts in Sonoma County. It was a welcome surprise to find that one of the organizers helping direct donations, Carol Beattie ’65, is a Harker Day School alumna.
Beattie is board vice chair at HealdsburgForever.org, a 14-year-old organization that helps fund various nonprofits in the Healdsburg area, which is assisting the Sonoma County Resilience Fund.
Once the decision was made to donate picnic receipts, the community stepped up the program and mounted a full-on effort to collect needed supplies for the stricken area. Along with $8,500 in picnic receipts, community members chipped in another $1,500 in cash to total about $10,000 in donations that went to the Sonoma County Resilience Fund. The Salvation Army received $2,800 in gift cards and the Redwood Empire Food Bank was the glad recipient of 150 bags and boxes of non-perishable food and pet food.
The donations are all thanks to a concerted effort by a variety of community members including members of Harker’s advancement department who coordinated the efforts.
Students and parents from the lower, middle and upper schools all contributed labor to the effort, with volunteers accepting donations to “stuff the bus” at a drop-off station at the upper school during Friday night’s football game, as well as at the middle and lower schools. In addition, lower school students wrote letters of encouragement to go with the more material contributions.
“I just want to thank everyone at Harker for the amazing job you did,” said Capt. Rio Ray, corps commanding officer, Salvation Army. “You are impacting lives. There are people that have lost everything and now have something because of you. So, thank you, continue to strive to serve others, you are making a difference and making the world a better place. Thank you.”
Redwood Empire Food Bank has served about 85 families a day over the last 12 days and was grateful for the Harker delivery. “Everybody has disasters; sometimes its medical, sometimes is the loss of a job, sometimes it’s just a disruption in your family,” said David Goodman, chief executive officer, Redwood Empire Food Bank. “In this particular case, the Sonoma complex fire has impacted thousands of people who never expected to need food assistance and here they are today. The food that you have given, your generosity, will improve lives and change lives and help people get back on their feet,” he said.
Music teacher Dave Hart invited Bay Area woodwind ensemble Frequency 49 to his middle school classroom on Thursday to show his students how chamber music is performed by professional musicians. The students, who had been creating chamber music compositions in class, watched as the members of the sextet – pianist Margaret Halbig, French horn player (and Hart’s wife) Leslie Hart, bassoonist Patrick Johnson-Whitty, oboist Adrienne Malley, clarinetist Jeannie Psomas and flautist Katrina Walter – demonstrated the various aspects and techniques of their respective instruments, as well as how the group’s unique configuration allows for flexibility in the sounds they can create. The students were then delighted to hear Frequency 49 perform a rendition of a piece by Francis Poulenc. More info about the group can be found at its website, as well as on Facebook and Instagram!
San Jose city councilman Chappie Jones was on hand yesterday morning to thank Harker’s freshman class effort of trail preservation at the Coyote Open Space Preserve. Jones reminded the team of 200 students and their advisors of the recent natural disasters, referencing the North Bay fires as well as the hurricanes that ravaged the Caribbean, Texas and Florida last month. “We see how important our environment is. We have to protect it,” urged the councilman. “You are part of that protecting our environment.”
Also on hand was Marc Landgraf, external affairs manager of the Open Space Authority of Santa Clara Valley. “You guys are contributing to 50,000 people a year enjoying this preserve and that’s a big deal to us,” he said. “We really appreciate your being here.”
Soon after hearing Jones’ words of encouragement, Harker freshman broke into three teams led by park employees to widen and clear the four-mile Arrowhead Loop Trail and remove invasive, non-native plants from an adjacent meadow. The work was overseen by Dana Litwin, volunteer programs administrator of the Open Space Authority. Litwin garnered the help of a dozen employees and volunteers to train and shepherd the students’ labor. Litwin pointed out that “in one day, the students did what would take our staff hundreds of hours!”
The annual freshman service trip was coordinated by Harker’s upper school Green Committee, led by Spanish teacher Diana Moss. One of the primary goals of the committee, according to Moss, is “to see our students develop a greater appreciation for and deeper connection with the natural habitats that surround us here in the Bay Area. Our hope is that many of them choose to become stewards for the environment who can make a positive difference on the planet at a time when climate change threatens our future.”
The freshman service trip happens annually on PSAT Wednesday, when sophomores and juniors are taking the exam and seniors use the day to work on college applications. Traditionally, freshman advisors join their students in a daylong effort to help the newest members of the upper school enjoy the fulfillment of volunteer work and jumpstart their community service requirement. Students who participated will receive credit for five of the annual required 10 hours of community service.
Seeing an opportunity to mix environmental protection with volunteer work, the Green Committee took on the coordination of this year’s event. Both the Green Committee and the Open Space Authority planned this event to become an annual pilgrimage by Harker freshman.
Freshman Sarah Raymond embraced that mission. “I think that’s really cool for our school to make an impact, to be known as the ones to clean the trail here,” she said.
Classmate Aniket Kriplani agreed, noting that being part of a large team lessens the load. “It makes you feel like you are getting a lot more done. When you look around and you see a lot of people. Work gets done fast,” he said. “If you’re doing this alone, it wouldn’t be as fun.”
The Green Committee also worked with Harker kitchen staff to plan a reduced waste lunch. Trays of lunchmeat and veggies displaced individually wrapped sandwiches to minimize the need for plastic wrap. Students and advisors brought reusable water bottles from home thereby eliminating the consumption of single-use plastic bottles. Even the location, about 20 minutes from Harker’s upper school campus, reduced the emissions of a longer bus trip and kept students efforts close to home where they might return to appreciate their work in the future.
Jones echoed this sentiment. “Nature is part of our DNA as human beings,” said Jones. “Nature is that outlet where you can go and just breathe, relax and just enjoy the outdoors.”
Last weekend, 29 upper school students made the trip to Ashland, Ore., to visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The long-running repertory theater, founded in 1935, is an annual destination for upper school English teacher Pauline Paskali’s students, who gain a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s works by seeing them interpreted in a live setting by professional actors. Paskali first made the trip with four of her students in 2009.
This year, the group enjoyed performances of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “Henry IV,” as well as a production of the 2014 play “Shakespeare in Love,” one of several contemporary works that OSF produces each year. Students also attended a workshop in which they learned about some of the narrative elements of Shakespeare’s plays.
Aditya Dhar ’17 was awarded a final accolade for his high school speech and debate efforts by the Stennis Center for Public Service Leadership. He was named to the 2017 National Student Congress as a member of the senate, based on his performance at the National Speech & Debate Association’s National Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., in June. Dhar was also the Senate Leadership Bowl Winner. Read more about Harker’s results in Birmingham.
In the summer of 2014, Bay Area high school students Luyi Zhang, Emily Li and Lucas Xin saw an opportunity to alleviate poverty while visiting the rural village of Dagouyan in China’s Ningxia region. The area’s cows, it turned out, were in demand in Chinese coastal cities because of Ningxia’s cleaner atmosphere. “However, most farmers in the village were unable to scrape up the tens of thousands in capital that are required to grow them,” said Jason Huang, a Harker junior. “As a result, the students raised several hundred thousand yuan and formed a cow collective.”
The students later formed Nanoseed, which Huang now leads as president, a nonprofit organization whose current main objective is to provide greater economic mobility for Dagouyan’s poor. “While it boasts several thousand in population, there only exists one factory that employs roughly two dozen workers depending upon the number of orders at the time, 27 workers max, while the remaining population survive by seeking temporary employment at larger cities or depending upon farming,” Huang said.
To date, most of Nanoseed’s work has gone into developing and supporting a “cow cooperative” that was started with the cooperation of several families in Dagouyan. Nanoseed raised funds for the operation and negotiated arrangements with a local butcher and a transportation agency.
Nanoseed employs the services of branches at other Bay Area schools for fundraising efforts, while the leadership resides at Harker. Funds raised by these branches are being funneled into a program that offers student loans to children in financially unstable situations. Funding also comes from donations and interest charged on loans they have made. “Loans are charged at a 6.6 percent interest rate. The rate is quite low when compared to the end fee of bank loans, which are usually not offered to the people we serve but often run over 20 to 30 percent in interest for others after accounting for corruption payments and other expenses,” Huang said.
Over the summer, Nanoseed helped found two online businesses in Dagouyan, a handmade shoe seller and a store for organic produce. Both businesses were started using the Chinese social media app WeChat, which includes platforms for instant messaging, networking and commerce.
“The shoe store specifically hires women from needy families to make their handcrafted products, while the organic produce store depends upon the only factory in the town,” Huang explained. “Specifically, this factory buys their ingredients at above market rates from farmers in the town, hires almost half of its production line workforce from needy families, and also donates supplies to the town school and organic fertilizer to farmers for their produce.”
Nanoseed leaders visit Ningxia periodically to work in person with the people involved in the businesses they help set up. Their future plans include improving the efficiency of the work done during these trips. “Current trips consist of a lot of impromptu actions and decisions by student leaders, with simple plans created in just a few days,” Huang said. “We want to create a comprehensive list of necessary actions for groups going to China to ensure steady progress, and also finalize business ideas and research before implementation in Ningxia.” During the school year, they plan to help expand the online businesses through marketing campaigns.
Huang hopes that Nanoseed’s example can spur others into action to help their communities: “Just like how small seeds grow into large trees, we hope our actions can encourage others to serve their community.”