In 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.
Harker’s MathCounts team, Celine Liang, grade 7 and eighth graders Matthew Huang, Cindy Liu and Andrew Zhang, placed first at the State MathCounts competition held at Stanford in mid-March. The Harker team was declared California State Champion, beating even the Cupertino Middle School team, the Santa Clara Chapter champion at the competition held on Feb. 12. David Lin, grade 8, participated as an independent qualifier and also did a fine job, said Vandana Kadam, MathCounts coach and middle school mathematics department chair.
Liang placed third following the countdown round of the competition, missing first place by a single point. There are only four students from the entire state who make the team which represents California at the national competition to be held May 5-8 in Washington, D.C., and Liang is one of the four students on this prestigious team. Three of the four top finishers came from the same chapter as Harker (Santa Clara Chapter).
Out of 155 students participating, Liang was third, Huang placed sixth, Liu placed 11th, Lin placed 12th and Zhang placed 28th. Kennedy, Redwood and Miller schools fielded extremely strong teams and Harker beat defending state champion William Hopkins School from Fremont, and also past champions Miller and Redwood, to clinch the number one spot.
Fourteen different chapters from Northern California participated and a similar number of students from 12 Southern California chapters participated in the same contest held simultaneously at University of California, Irvine. The top 10 students were recognized at each of these venues.
After the main event, two students each tied with 46 points (perfect score) and 45 points, so runoffs were held for each of the top four slots. Liang had to go head to head with her competitor to gain the number three spot; her competitor dropped to fourth place. Harker’s Huang barely missed making the team with his sixth place finish. The top four finishers will go to nationals, held in May. Kadam will be there, too, as California State Coach.
“The title of California State Champions is well deserved for each one of them. This is an incredible achievement for the students and for the school,” said Tim McCarthy, coordinator of the Santa Clara Chapter and the Northern California competition.
During a flurry of math contests in February and March, Harker students have been performing admirably. On Feb. 12, Harker participated in the Santa Clara chapter of the MathCounts competition, said to be the most competitive chapter in the country, a notion supported by the 13-way tie for first place. Cindy Liu and Matthew Huang, both grade 8, both scored 45 out of a possible 46 points and finished 15th and 16th, respectively. David Lin, grade 8, received a score of 44 and placed 20th in a four-way tie. Andrew Zhang, grade 8 and Allison Wang, grade 7, had 43 points and placed 24th and 27th, respectively.
In the team competition, Harker’s team, made up of Huang, Liu, Zhang and Celine Liang, grade 7, took third place in the competition, earning a spot in the state competition on March 19 at Stanford University. Lin will participate in the individual competition because of his performance at the Santa Clara chapter.
On Feb. 14, middle school students took either the American Mathematics Competition’s AMC 10 A or AMC 12 A tests, and took the AMC 10 A or AMC 12 B tests on Feb. 24. In this contest, meant for high school sophomores and seniors, abovementioned students Huang, Liang, Lin, Liu and Wang, as well as Suzy Lou and Sriram Somasundaram, both grade 8; David Zhu, grade 6; and Jessica Zhu, grade 7, performed well enough to compete in the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME).
Several students scored high in the California Math League (CAML) contest, which was administered Feb. 22. Out of a possible 35 points, David Zhu earned a perfect score, while classmates Peter Wu and Kai-Siang Ang scored 34 and 33, respectively. Grade 6 students James He, Neymika Jain and Steven Cao all scored 29.
Seventh graders Wang and Michael Zhao had perfect scores, and classmates Jessica Zhu, Anthony Luo and Jonathan Dai had 34. Jonathan Ma, Celine Liang and Vineet Kosaraju earned 33 points and Rishabh Chandra finished with 32 points.
In grade 8, Cindy Liu and Andrew Jin had 35 points. Andrew Zhang and Aadyot Bhatnagar both earned 34. Scoring 33 points were David Lin, Steven Wang, Suzy Lou and Pranav Reddy. Nikhil Kishore, Helen Wu and Samyukta Yagati all had 32 points.
Harker hosted the 10th annual Diana Nichols Harker Math Invitational in which Harker students also excelled. This was the first contest to also feature international competitors from the World Foreign Language Middle School in China and Viveka School of Excellence in India. Results are contained in the full report of the event.
The tenth annual Diana Nichols Harker Math Invitational for grades 6 to 8, held March 5, was a highly successful event with 21 local schools participating and about 350 contestants taking part in the individual and team contests. There were 56 competing and five non-competing teams for the team contest. This contest was also the first to include overseas schools, with competitors from the World Foreign Language Middle School in Shanghai, China, and Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement’s Viveka School of Excellence in Saragur, India.
Harker placed well in the individual events in every grade level. Grade 6 competitors David Zhu and Kai-Siang An took first and second, respectively, in their category. At the grade 7 level, Allison Wang took first place, as did Menghua Wu at the grade 8 level.
In the team contests, Harker’s grade 6 team of An, Soham Khan, Angela Kim, Aneesh Samineni, Manah Shah, Peter Wu and David Zhu earned second place. Grade 7 students Grace Guan, Vineet Kosaraju, Anthony Luo, Jonathan Ma, Allison Wang, Michael Zhao and Jessica Zhu also finished second.
Written for Harker News [Online] by Ramya Rangan, grade 11, WiSTEM Publicity Officer
This January many Harker upper school students found a new way to help the global community by raising funds to improve female education in sub-Saharan Africa.
Harker’s WiSTEM (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) led a weeklong effort the first week of the new year to raise awareness about the disparity between female and male education rates in the developing world.
Throughout the week, WiSTEM members emphasized that giving a girl an education leads to better health and lifestyles for her entire family. Since female education rates are the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, the club raised funds for CAMFED, an organization that transfers donations to Africa to send children to school.
To accomplish their goal WiSTEM members sold goods at almost every opportunity, including after school and at lunch. Unlike previous years, the goods were personalized by the club to match the week’s theme. Wristbands featured the slogan “A Chance to Advance,” and freshly-baked cupcakes were decorated with statistics about girls’ education around the world.
In the end, Harker students proved to be more than willing to support this cause. The club raised about $3,000, enough for CAMFED to “help 10 girls stay in high school in the Samfya district of Zambia. That’s 40 years of education,” said senior Josephine Chen, president of WiSTEM.
WiSTEM’s focus during their week was not just to raise money, however; the club primarily sought to increase awareness on the issue of girls’ education. As Chen explained, “While fundraising enables us to provide an immediate, direct impact on many girls’ lives, becoming educated about the cause can allow each and every one of us to continue to support the cause beyond this one week.”
To spread key statistics about girls’ education, WiSTEM gave an interactive and informative presentation during an assembly. The club also posted fliers and posters around the school.
According to Anita Chetty, science department chair and WiSTEM’s advisor, “WiSTEM used a unique way to deliver its message this year,” setting up a trivia game as a spirit competition to promote science literacy and reinforce information on [WiSTEM’s] posters.
The game was modeled after the High School Science Bowl (often called the Quiz Bowl) competition. Each class assembled a team of 10 or more student who were prepared to answer general science trivia questions and questions specific to girls’ education. With the incentive of spirit points and the need to defend class pride, approximately 50 people joined in the event in some way, either by competing or by supporting their friends.
Chetty said she “was very impressed with the number of students who came out to support WiSTEM and their classes.” Chen agreed, noting she “loved that people actually studied the various facts we posted around school” to prepare for the event. The competition served its purpose to educate the student body about the lack of girls’ education around the world.
WiSTEM members intend to continue to support increased education through the year and the club hopes to include the rest of the school in their efforts. Although the club’s week in January focused on education in the developing world, WiSTEM recognizes that education-related issues plague us locally as well.
Therefore, according to Chen, “WiSTEM is hoping to plan various activities at Scott Lane,” a school that educates underprivileged students in the Bay Area. These activities could include “tutoring, creating educational games or staging a mini-science fair.” As January fades into history, Harker students will continue to increase their impact on education levels around the world, thanks to WiSTEM’s ongoing efforts.
The Harker School is hosting its tenth annual math invitational on March 5, 2011, open to all middle school students in grades 6–8. Students are invited to participate as individuals and in teams of four to seven students. Schools that do not have complete teams will be combined with others to create a team.
Registration deadline is Feb. 15 and invitations have already been mailed to many schools in the area. The contest is limited to 14 students per grade, per school; cost is $5 per student. Late registration is $10 per student. Please note students are not provided lunch and chaperones / coaches are responsible for supervising their students during the lunch break (12 noon to 1:30 p.m.). For full information, download the flier!
In early November, lower school mathematicians participated in the first meet of the Continental Math League’s (CML) 2010-11 math contest. The meet required students to solve six problems in 30 minutes. The grade 5 team of Adrian Chu, Michael Kwan, Linus Li, Rajiv Mova, Justin Su and Shaya Zarkesh performed exceptionally well, garnering six perfect scores for a perfect team score of 36. The grade 4 team had two perfect scores of its own, courtesy of Rose Guan and Katherine Tien.
More CML meets will take place throughout the school year until the spring. Updates will be made as more information becomes available, so please stay tuned!
In October, National Assessment & Testing (NAT) announced that a team of Harker mathematicians finished in sixth place out of 25 teams during the 2010 Fall Startup Event. The team, coached by upper school math teacher Misael Fisico, included Vikram Sundar, Varun Mohan and Alex Pei, grade 9; Ashvin Swaminathan, grade 10; Patrick Yang, Albert Wu, Lucy Cheng and Ramya Rangan, grade 11; and Richard Chiou, grade 12. The test was administered by mail and each student was required to answer 100 problems in half an hour. Each student’s results then were used to make the team’s final score. Part of the challenge, according to a NAT press release, is choosing which problems to solve and which ones to skip.
Third-graders went to work before the Thanksgiving break on their annual Thanksgiving math project of planning a meal for 15. Students “shopped” for menu items via food advertisements and calculated the price of the meal. “It’s a great hands-on math activity with lots of comparison shopping and discussion, and the kids love choosing food and drinks for their “guests”! said teacher Stephanie Woolsey.
This story was originally published in the Fall 2010 issue of Harker Quarterly
For the fourth year in a row, Harker students claimed regional recognition in eCYBERMISSION’s national competition, receiving monetary awards totaling $18,000 between the two teams. One team also received an all-expenses-paid trip to the National Judging and Educational Event in Baltimore, Md., on June 21-26 to present their final project to four army officials and teachers from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
A competition challenging students in grades six to nine to use science, math and technology to solve real community issues, eCYBERMISSION encourages students to research and conduct experiments to find a solution. While “Dust Busters,” Allen Cheng, Daniel Pak, Albert Chu and Sharon Babu, now all grade 9, did not place nationally in Baltimore, the team had the opportunity to meet with all regional winners and explore the two Smithsonian museums and Aberdeen Proving Ground, home of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command.
The “Dust Busters’” presentation was the culmination of a year’s worth of research on a community controversy two students initially read about in the town newspaper related to mercury dust emissions from Lehigh Hanson Cement Plant.
Before submitting their project online in February, the quartet spent five months collecting water from four different bodies of water, testing for emissions in the lab and compiling data to research ways to educate the residents about the pollution and possible health issues. They also interviewed Hanson Quarry to hear the company’s side of the story.
The “Dust Busters” discovered that, while the local cement plant was not in violation of the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations, the mercury level in water near the quarry was significantly higher than mercury levels in other bodies of water in the area. The students took their findings to the Cupertino City Council and created a pamphlet that was distributed door-to-door to residents.
“This project needs students who have good research skills, writing skills, data collection and analysis and public relations skills to help them interview experts in the field that they are working on,” Vandana Kadam, advisor and math teacher, said about the group’s dynamic. “This team had a good combination of these qualities and hence worked very well together.”
The “Analytic Trio,” now also in grade 9, were Vikas Bhetanabhotla, Divyahans Gupta and Brian Tuan. They also received high honors and were recognized for their project’s application of science, math and technology. After experimenting with six different designs, the “Analytic Trio” presented a gas nozzle prototype that emits a lower amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) into the environment than the current nozzle used across the nation.
“We are extremely proud of the students from The Harker School for their creative and innovative use of outstanding research, experimentation and analysis during this year’s eCYBERMISSION competition,” Major General Nick G. Justice said. “These students were selected from thousands of their peers, not only for their potential as future leaders in STEM [science, technology, engineering, math], but for their work to improve and make a positive impact on the communities in which they live.”