Harker earned the top spot in a survey of SAT scores at regional high schools, according to a report published this week by the San Francisco Business Times, based on data from Niche, a school rating site. The report notes that out of 72 private high schools in the Bay Area, the top 10 all have SAT scores averaging above 1350 out of a possible 1600. The report notes, “The highest average SAT score for the schools surveyed was 1480, a jump of 50 points from the highest scoring public high school in the Bay Area.” At 1480, Harker had the highest average among private schools, according to the report. Here is the full article.
On Jan. 31, the grade 6 advisories spent the afternoon rotating among three different activities, while the grades 7 and 8 students watched the Upper School Dance Show.
Sixth graders were split into three groups. Students spent time with English teacher Rebecca Williams doing an activity called “My Multicultural Self” in which they looked at the different things in their lives that make up their individual cultures. Students then discussed the similarities and differences among the groups. With P.E. teacher CJ Cali, the advisories had fun running relays and doing team-building activities in the gym. Finally, with math teacher Margaret Huntley , the students made Valentine’s Day cards, which will be distributed to the elderly through Meals on Wheels. In all, the students made 275 cards with origami hearts and special notes for the recipients.
The kids had a great time and feedback from the advisors was positive.
Cindy Proctor and Larissa Weaver’s grade 1 language arts students participated in a special project in January that had them conjuring up inventions as a tie-in with their literature readings. The project, first conducted three years ago, involves students using items from an Idea Box to invent something that can be used to make everyday life easier or more enjoyable. Students were required to invent items that could be utilized by lots of people, but they could not be used for time travel or violent purposes.
“We read stories in language arts class that highlight the importance of new ideas, the history of real inventions and books that teach the children about inventors, adult and child, fiction and non-fiction,” said Proctor. “We guide the children to understand that inventing is a process and that mistakes are part of this process.”
Students work on their inventions at home and periodically update their classmates on their progress, including the challenges they’ve faced. Classmates often respond with assistance and encouragement, which teaches the students that invention is often a collaborative endeavor.
The young inventors also learn how to give a presentation on their inventions to their classmates at an Invention Convention, during which grade 2 students who participated the previous year visit the class.
This year, Sam Mazin, who created the technology behind the company RefleXion Medical, made an appearance to speak with the students about the invention process. He also met individually with students to talk about their inventions.
“All the children did an amazing job extending themselves and approaching the task with eagerness, creativity and perseverance,” Proctor said. For example, Augusta Chen devised a machine for students who have trouble remembering to do homework, while Omya Vidyarthi’s “Fly Chair” helps the physically disabled enter and exit their homes. The “Camping Fooder,” invented by Jacob Chung, prepares food for outdoors enthusiasts, while Aarav Mann’s “Rolling Shoes” aim to provide locomotion to those who cannot easily walk.
Over the two-week period from idea to invention to presentation, the students learn important lessons about “ingenuity, perseverance, problem solving and communicating an idea,” Proctor said. “We encourage the children to allow themselves to think, reflect, and make their ideas grow into something tangible. The Invention Convention is a celebration of their thinking process from the abstract to the concrete.”
On Feb. 11, Harker’s Science Bowl team won the regional competition held at the Stanford Linear Accelerator’s National Accelerator Laboratory. Senior Venkat Sankar and juniors Rajiv Movva, Shaya Zarkesh, Swapnil Garg and Derek Yen now move on to the national competition, to be held in Washington, D.C., April 27-May 1. Yen filled in for Arjun Subramaniam, grade 12, who could not compete due to a family obligation. Per the rules of the National Science Bowl, Yen will be part of the team that competes at nationals.
Organized by the U.S. Department of Energy since 1991, the National Science Bowl has teams of students compete against one another in a Q&A format similar to television game shows. Questions deal with a variety of topics, including biology, physics and math.
Nice articles from the Mercury News and Stanford on the win!
During the third week of January, 22 students from the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy visited Harker as part of an annual exchange program with the school, which has existed for more than 20 years.
The students arrived on the morning of Saturday, Jan. 14, and met up with their homestays. The WFLA chaperones enjoyed a day of sightseeing in San Francisco courtesy of technical theater teacher Paul Vallerga. The following day, grade 3 department chair Kathy Ferretti shuttled the chaperones to Monterey and Gilroy, and on Monday, lower school English department chair Kate Shanahan took them shopping in the San Jose area.
On their first day at Harker, the students observed classes with their buddies, made crafts in the middle school’s innovation lab and learned how to play American football. The next day, they toured Stanford University and visited the campus’s Cantor Arts Center. Thursday’s cooking class was especially fun for the students, who “had a great time making sloppy Joes, deviled eggs, clam chowder and apple pie,” said Jennifer Walrod, global education director.
Friday was packed with activity, as the WFLA students enjoyed a Chinese paper-cutting activity with lower school students, then headed to Cesar Chavez Park in downtown San Jose to enjoy a bag lunch before exploring the Tech Museum of Innovation. That afternoon, they returned to the middle school for a farewell party, where they and their buddies had great fun using the photo booth and making sundaes.
Just before boarding their flight home on Saturday, Jan. 21, the WFLA students shared an emotional farewell with their Harker buddies.
“Summer Camp,” this year’s grade 5 show, directed by Kellie Binney-Smart, featured a cast of 132 students performing a series of song and dance numbers about their adventures at Camp Runamok – encountering bugs, bears and camp leaders as they learn to fit in and make new friends. Students worked behind the scenes as well as on stage, with Danny Dunn’s lower school technical theater students serving as the show’s crew. Check out all the great, colorful photos, both in this story and the full set in the Harker Parent Portal!
Over the holiday season, middle school students worked hard to collect gifts for Family Giving Tree, delivering 350 gifts to the organization. With the help of Harker’s students, Family Giving Tree was able to distribute more than 76,000 gifts during the 2016 holiday season, surpassing the organization’s goal for the drive.
“I am extremely proud of all our students, families and staff that go over and beyond in the spirit of giving,” said middle school BEST director Lorena Martinez. The goal for the 2017 holiday drive is 400 gifts.
Started as an MBA project in 1990, Family Giving Tree seeks to alleviate Bay Area poverty by organizing major giving drives every year. The annual Holiday Wish Drive works to fulfill holiday gift requests for low-income households, and the Back-to-School Drive provides backpacks with school supplies to tens of thousands of K-12 students.
Harker Preschool’s transitional kindergarten (TK) class just completed an exciting research project on the behavior and habitat of pill bugs (often referred to as roly-polys, these are the little grey bugs that roll into a ball when startled). Two students, Daniel Kroll and Dylan Ruffy, began studying the bugs on the playground in September, which led to the long-term study. Nina Smith, assistant teacher, guided the project for many months, involving the other students and supporting the researchers as they traveled the road of discovery.
Classmates Rishaan Lawande and Aisha Agrawal created a small terrarium to determine whether they could keep pill bugs in the classroom. After the death of the first pill bugs, students discovered that pill bugs need water in order to live. Rishaan and Aisha kept a log book in which they noted how much water they added to the habitat each week.
Students Laura Zhang and Anaika Verma collected data on how many pill bugs were in the habitat and discovered that the number kept increasing, so they concluded that the pill bugs were having babies. Laura and Anaika researched the pill bug life cycle.
Natalie Uhlig and Vedika Deoras made observations and recorded data about pill bug behavior.
As the pill bug colony grew larger, the students made larger terrariums. The students were eager to share their observations, research and discoveries, so they presented their observations, log books, book research and portable pill bug habitat last week to students in the preschool’s Acorn cottage.
The students’ paths of discovery were a lot of fun!
“I like the roly-polys,” said Clara Yu-Svensson, age 4.
“I found a worm,” added Adam Shimelfarb, age 4.
“[The habitat] is very wet!” noted Fiona Yan, age 4.
“The magnifier makes [the pill bug] look bigger,” observed Rohan Radhakrishna, age 4.
And the researchers appreciated their audience! “[The Acorns] were good listeners,” said Rishaan, one of the TK researchers.
In early January, the Student Directed Showcase, the first major upper school performing arts event of the year, treated audiences to a series of one-act plays directed by Harker Conservatory seniors. Directors prepared for the event during a months-long process that included choosing plays, casting, promotion and detailed planning.
In “Grover,” written by Joel Fishbane and directed by Chetana Kalidindi, a young woman separates from her husband and develops an elaborate deception to keep her persona non grata spouse at bay. Emre Ezer directed Clarence Coo’s “Removing the Glove,” a comedic but chilling alternate-reality tale in which being left-handed is so stigmatized that southpaws face widespread discrimination and bigotry. Sana Aladin looked to the classics, directing Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” a Victorian-era comedy about multiple identities. Don Zolidis’ “Dystopia!” directed by Kayvon Solaimanpour, presented a darkly funny nightmare scenario in which a group of teenagers must face the many dangerous tropes of young-adult dystopian fiction.
Congratulations to Dezi Johnsen, grade 7, for placing fourth in the nation in the 145-pound weight division at the 62nd Annual Flo Tulsa Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., this past weekend. Johnsen was among more than 2,000 wrestlers ages 4-16 years old, representing 40 states, to compete in the “oldest, most prestigious junior wrestling event in the world,” according to World of Wrestling. Awesome job, Dezi!
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team continued its impressive year as it picked up two league wins last week, bringing the team’s season record to 8-2-1. In a 5-3 win over Castilleja, senior Joelle Anderson scored two goals, with senior Lyndsey Mitchell, and sophomores Sara Min and Julia Amick, also scoring goals. Last Friday, at the Kicks Against Cancer game, the Eagles defeated Eastside College Prep 10-1, with Anderson scoring five goals, Mitchell and Sahana Narayan, grade 10, each scoring two goals, and Cameron Zell, grade 10, also scoring. Next up for the Eagles is a home match versus Mercy San Francisco on Thursday.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team started the week with a 4-1 loss to Menlo, but finished the week with an impressive 3-0 victory over Eastside College Prep. Today, the boys team takes on the German International School of Silicon Valley at Davis Field, with a trip to The Kings Academy set for Wednesday.
Wrestling
The Harker wrestling team defeated Saratoga High 45-12 last week at its first home meet of the year. Justin Su, grade 11, Anthony Contreras, grade 11, and Diego Figueroa, grade 12, all won by pin, with Alan Hughes, grade 11, winning by decision and Dolan Dworak, grade 11, winning by DQ. Next up for the Eagles is a league matchup at Santa Clara High.
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team lost two league games last week. In a tough 51-47 OT loss to The Kings Academy, Brando Pakel, grade 11, led the Eagles with 11 points and seven rebounds. Later in the week, Justin Jia, grade 12, led all Eagles with seven points in a 64-24 loss to Menlo. This week, the Eagles host Pinewood on Tuesday and travel to Sacred Heart Prep on Friday.
Girls Basketball
Picking up a 39-31 win over The Kings Academy last week, the girls basketball team improved to 9-8 on the season. Next up for the Eagles is a trip to Crystal Springs Uplands on Tuesday and a home game versus Notre Dame San Jose on Friday.