This article was originally published in the fall 2014 Harker Quarterly.
In mid-June, 19 students and three teachers set off on a five-day backpacking adventure in Yosemite National Park, packing in their own supplies and making their own food.
Science teachers Ben Morgensen and Daniel Sommer, and math teacher Margaret Huntley, accompanied students on the trip, which began at Crane Flat Campground.
“The backpacking trip was incredible!” recalled Huntley. “We hiked to and camped at the truly amazing May Lake, with a pristine lake, snow-capped peaks and view out across Yosemite. We did a day hike to Mt. Hoffmann (10,856 ft.) then hiked to Murphy Creek and camped there for a night before hiking out and driving home. We had beautiful weather and a great mix of first-time and returning hikers, some sleeping in a tent for the first time and others taking on real leadership roles.”
After Crane Flat, the group drove to the May Lake Trailhead. “On the way … we watched the land unfold in front of us, with towering peaks jutting sharply into the deep blue sky and babbling brooks merrily cascading down deep gorges,” reminisced Andy Semenza, grade 9.
Once at the trailhead, it was a short hike up to May Lake through the alpine landscape. Upon their arrival at the lake beneath Mt. Hoffmann, they proceeded to set up camp and cook dinner.
“The need to purify all water instilled a greater appreciation for nature,” Semenza said. “Once we had finished our repast, we scrambled up a rock outcropping near the lake to watch a spectacular sunset and thunderstorm unfold over the great valley of Tuolumne Meadows and lightning strike the highest peaks of the region.”
The next morning, the students climbed Mt. Hoffman then descended to Murphy Creek where many of them fished for trout in the lake. That night, some of the group opted to spend the night in sleeping bags on the granite.
“Throughout that week, we learned many lessons only possible outside the confines of the classroom walls – from the crippling effects of altitude to the feeding practices of ospreys. However, we also had to cope with more psychological issues, like managing a good pace for a group or dealing with tent mates,” said Semenza.
This article was originally published in the fall 2014 Harker Quarterly.
In June, more than a dozen upper school students, accompanied by upper school science teachers Anita Chetty and Mike Pistacchi, embarked on an eye-opening trip to Tanzania.
Students had amazing interactions with some of Tanzania’s tribal people. The Hadzabe people are the oldest hunter-gatherer tribe. They speak with clicks and are entirely unfamiliar with cities or cars. The tribe welcomed the students to their village, sharing stories about their lives and culture. The chief of the tribe taught the students how to build a fire and to use a bow and arrow before taking them on a two-hour hunting excursion through the wilderness. Before parting ways with the Hadzabe, the group delivered medical and diagnostic equipment that they had raised money to purchase.
During their visit with the Maasai village of Esilalei, the students ran an eye clinic, fitting and delivering 50 pairs of glasses that they had collected from Harker community donations, in addition to donating 15 goats. Harker’s Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (WiSTEM) organization also donated uniforms and book bags for 40 children, enabling them to attend school.
While on safari through Tanzania’s Tarangire and Serengeti national parks and the Ngorogoro Crater, the students had the rare opportunity to see the Big Five over two separate days: elephant, rhino, leopard, lion and Cape buffalo. Students also saw a cheetah stalk, chase and kill a gazelle. During a Jeep tour of Tarangire National Park, the students observed impalas, elephants and a herd of more than 500 buffalo. At one point, several female and baby elephants wandered to within 20 feet of the group, who gladly took pictures.
Oct. 28, 2014: On Oct. 21, Daniela Lee, grade 12, and Sadhika Malladi, grade 11, were honored by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and the San Jose City Council with mayoral commendations for their success in the Google Science Fair. The students received the commendations at a meeting of the city council where they met both Mayor Reed and councilmember Ash Kalra.
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Sept. 23, 2014: The 2014 Google Science Fair has ended, and senior Daniela Lee and junior Sadhika Malladi have finished as global finalists in the 17-18 age group. Congratulations to these students for reaching this stage of this worldwide competition!
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Daniela Lee, grade 12, and Sadhika Malladi, grade 11, have been named finalists in the 2014 Google Science Fair in the 17-18 age group! The two entered as a team and their project is up for the Voter’s Choice Award. Voting is open until Sept. 13, so be sure visit the Google Science Fair website to cast your vote! Lee and Malladi also will compete at Google headquarters on Sept. 22 for a grand prize package that includes a National Geographic Expeditions excursion to the Galapagos Islands, a visit to the Virgin Galactic Spaceport and a $50,000 scholarship.
Davis Dunaway, grade 10, and his collaborators on the “Grid” project, detailed below, will appear at the World Maker Faire in New York City this weekend. They will be sharing the lesson’s they’ve learned in order to help young makers and the adults mentoring them how to get their ideas off the ground.
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Rising sophomore Davis Dunaway started off his summer in a big way by participating in the White House Maker Faire. Dunaway and his friends were invited to showcase a project they created through the Young Makers program, which brings together young people ages 8-18 to create projects that are showcased at various events. Their creation is a massive version of the popular mobile puzzle game Flow Free, in which players connect identically colored dots. The version Dunaway and friends created is made up of 64 tiles that change colors when players step on them. It was designed and built by the students with the help of their parents and was also featured at Maker Faires in New York and San Francisco. The size of the game board allows the game to be played by multiple people simultaneously.
The White House Maker Faire took place June 18, which was declared a National Day of Making by President Barack Obama. “This event celebrates every maker — from students learning STEM skills to entrepreneurs launching new businesses to innovators powering the renaissance in American manufacturing,” Obama said in a presidential proclamation on June 17. “I am calling on people across the country to join us in sparking creativity and encouraging invention in their communities.”
On any given day, Harker Preschool’s on-site STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) lab is buzzing with activity. But it’s not every day the classroom is visited by a special guest from San Jose State University’s Science Education Resource Center. The engaging and rather unique visitor was none other than an adorable desert tortoise named Jeremiah, on loan for several days.
Jeremiah made quite an impact and left a lasting impression on the children, according to the preschool’s STEM specialist, Robyn Stone, who obtained him from the center where she has borrowing privileges. “Students of all ages visited Jeremiah in the lab,” recalled Stone, who comes to Harker Preschool with an impressive list of credentials, most recently as a professional development instructor for the Resource Area For Teaching in San Jose. This spring, Stone also will be teaching the early childhood education course Science Play for the University of California Santa Cruz Extension.
Stone stressed that while it may not be every day a guest like Jeremiah pays a visit to the lab, it is every day that her students have the opportunity to participate in some type of STEM-related activity. According to Andrea Hart, preschool director, the STEM lab is only one specialty class offered to the children; the others are art studio, and music and movement. All of them are rich with activity centers and educational materials in each particular subject area, offering a balance between child-directed exploratory learning and teacher-directed activities.
“Robyn’s role is to work in collaboration with classroom teachers on ongoing themes, as well as introduce new concepts and opportunities for growth,” explained Hart. Indeed, Stone’s STEM class kicked off the school year with exciting simultaneous happenings.
For the 3- and 4-year-olds, who occupy the cottage classrooms, lab work included an exploration of force and motion by the Feather Cottage; an investigation into geology and erosion by the Pebble Cottage; a discovery about ocean life by the Clover Cottage (which led to an interest in turtles and tortoises, prompting the schoolwide visit from Jeremiah); and an exploration about autumn leaves and pumpkins by the Acorn Cottage.
Meanwhile, the transitional kindergarten (TK) cohort explored insects, measurement and reptiles. “I liked measuring with my feet,” recalled TK student Divya Bhupathi. Four-year-old Anirudh Subramanian said he “liked sorting things.”
“Anirudh was telling us about science class on the way back home in the car. He said he learned about prisms, transparent and translucent, gave examples of each, and said he loved the class!” noted his mom, Gayathri Srinivasan.
Most recently, as part of an exploration about the physics of light, students of all ages built a spectroscope that separates white light into spectrum components. They were excited to learn that different light sources create different patterns. “We’ve explored a lot of things so far!” affirmed Stone, adding that, in addition to special activities like the visit from Jeremiah, there are permanent installations in the lab continuously available for exploration.
Binoculars aid the children in viewing hummingbirds and insects in the native California flower garden. The freshwater aquarium enables students to explore aquatic species. Marble tracks build students’ design thinking skills – the foundation of engineering. And sand timers, balance scales and other tools allow students to apply mathematical skills to solve problems,” Stone added
Another permanent installation is the preschool’s onsite farm, which, in perfect outdoor science classroom fashion, has various stations designed to engage all five senses. There, the youngsters are able to observe and participate in such activities as rabbit feeding, garden watering, corn grinding, as well as leaf raking and sweeping.
In addition to the regular lab curriculum, holidays also provide ample opportunities for special events. In fall, for example, the 4-year-old and TK classes explored human anatomy and physiology by looking at the skeletal system inspired by decorations for el Dia de Los Muertos and Halloween. The 3-year-olds, meanwhile, had a concurring activity in pumpkin exploration.
They especially enjoyed cracking them open and scooping out the innards. They also baked pumpkin muffins and made hot cocoa, which student Olivia Zhao recalled, “tasted yummy!”
Look for more updates about other activities and specialty classes at Harker Preschool in future Harker Quarterly articles.
May 9, 2014
Great news from the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Washington D.C, where Junior Neil Movva presented in late April and came home with the first place prize in the engineering category for his project, A Novel Use of Infrared Light in Eye Tracking Systems.
Movva, who did all his research at Harker, earned a $12,000 scholarship and an invitation to the 2014 London International Youth Science Fair! “This has been without a doubt the most complete, satisfying and memorable science fair I have had the privilege of attending,” Movva said. “I want to thank all of you, again, for making this possible, and I’m excited to know that Harker will continue to offer these unique opportunities.”
This achievement is a historic double first for Harker, said Anita Chetty, science chair. “We have not placed first at JSHS and we have never gone abroad to an international fair,” she noted in her congratulatory note to Neil.
In early May, Movva made the tough choice to forego his trip to London in lieu of taking on an internship at Stanford University. “I’ll be stepping away a bit from engineering, working in a biomedical research division at the Hagey Lab at Stanford with a focus on reconstructive surgery,” said Movva. “I’ll be continuing some earlier research I have done on wound healing and tissue repair. I’ve already visited the lab a few times, and I’m really excited to work with the expert researchers in such an advanced technical setting. I’m looking forward to the summer!” Congrats, in duplicate, to Movva for his efforts on both science fronts!
March 24, 2014
Junior Neil Movva took second place at the Northern California/Western Nevada Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, held March 6-8 in Reno. This earned him a trip to Washington, D.C., to compete at the national symposium in late April.
Movva’s project dealt with eye trackers that allow people to use computers with eye movements. “For example, one could type on a keyboard just by focusing on individual keys,” Movva explained. His research showed that infrared (IR) light could be used to improve the accuracy of these devices. “Ultimately, I demonstrated a very simple IR eye tracker that was on par with high-end traditional systems,” said Movva.
In addition to second place at JSHS, the project also netted Movva first place in the engineering category at the 2013 Synopsys Science Fair. While the prospect of further success at the national level is enticing, Movva said the most exciting aspect is the opportunity to meet more students as passionate about research as him. “I’ll get to meet hundreds of my like-minded peers and learn about the best student research being done across the nation,” he said. “Just like the regional symposium, I’ll get to make new friends and meet with professionals to discuss and learn about fascinating topics from all fields of science.”
Harker enjoyed another successful year at the Synopsys Championship in March, as dozens of middle and upper school students garnered awards.
Five upper school students were named Grand Prize winners, granting them spots at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Two additional students were named Grand Prize alternates.
Sriram Somasundaram, grade 11, won Grand Prize – Best of Championship in Biological Sciences. He was awarded $1,000 and a finalist letter from the Synopsys Outreach Foundation. He also received a First Award in the Biochemistry/Microbiology category.
Junior Andrew Jin also won Grand Prize – Best of Championship in Biological Sciences. He received $1,000 and a finalist letter from the Synopsys Outreach Foundation. He also was awarded a $100 First Prize from Morgan Lewis, a $100 second place prize from the UCSF Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, and $75 from Varian Medical Systems. In addition, he received a First Award in the Bioinformatics category.
Another Grand Prize – Best of Championship winner in Biological Sciences was Steven Wang, grade 11. He received $1,000 and a finalist letter from the Synopsys Outreach Foundation, as well as a $100 First Prize from Morgan Lewis, a $100 second place prize from the UCSF Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, and $75 from Varian Medical Systems. He also received a First Award in Bioinformatics.
Junior Vivek Sriram was named Grand Prize Alternate in Biological Sciences. He also received a First Award in Bioinformatics.
In Physical Sciences, Nitya Mani, grade 11, won a Grand Prize – Best of Championship, as well as a First Award in the Computers/Mathematics category. She also received a Certificate of Achievement from Mu Alpha Theta.
Senior Varun Mohan also won Grand Prize – Best of Championship in Physical Sciences, as well as a First Award in Computers/Mathematics and a Certificate of Achievement and medallion from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
Senior Vikas Bhetanabhotla was named a Grand Prize Alternate in Physical Sciences. He also won a First Award in Physics.
In all, 30 upper school students were winners in various categories.
In Botany, Joyce Huang and Neymika Jain, both grade 9, won First Awards.
In Environmental Sciences, grade 9 students Anika Jain, Anuva Mittal and Steven Cao won First Awards. Cao also received a Schonert Award, which came with $100 and a Certificate of Achievement. Tiara Bhatacharya, grade 11, also had success in Environmental Sciences, winning a Second Award.
In Biochemistry/Microbiology, First Awards went to Kshithija Mulam and Alayna Richmond, both grade 9. Anika Gupta, grade 12, received an Honorable Mention.
In Chemistry, Rohith Kuditipudi, grade 11, won a First Award and finalist letter, as well as $50 from San Jose State Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society. Efrey Noten, grade 12, won a Second Award.
Harker had a total of five winners in Computers/Mathematics. In addition to Mani and Mohan, junior Ankita Pannu received a Fourth Place Student Award from the San Francisco Bay Area professional chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, which included a certificate and $120. Rishabh Jain, grade 11, and Vineet Kosaraju, grade 10, each received an Honorable Mention from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
In Medicine/Health/Gerontology, junior Neil Movva received a First Award and $100 from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, while freshman Venkat Sankar received a Second Award.
In Earth/Space Sciences, Manan Shah, grade 9, won a First Award and $100 from Trimble Navigation, as well as a certificate of achievement from the American Meteorological Society. In the same category, Zareen Choudhury won a Second Award.
Harker had two winners in the Engineering category. Junior Vamsi Gadiraju received a $100 First Prize from Morgan Lewis, a finalist letter from the Synopsys Outreach Foundation, a $100 First Place Award and certificate from the American Vacuum Society, a $75 Second Place Award from A Society for Materials, a certificate of achievement and medallion from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, and a $100 First Place Award from the Society of Vacuum Coaters. Meanwhile, Kailas Vodrahalli, grade 11, won Outstanding Sustainability Project in the Synopsys Championship’s I-SWEEEP contest, as well as an Honorable Mention in the Engineering Category and a certificate and medallion from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
In Bioinformatics, junior David Lin earned an Honorable Mention, as well as an iPad Mini and Certificate of Achievement from MedImmune. Vedant Thyagaraj, grade 11, won a Second Award.
Finally, in Physics, junior Leo Yu earned a Second Award.
Harker middle school students also had considerable success. First Awards in Zoology went to Praveen Batra and Michael Kwan, both grade 8, with Sumati Wadhwa, also grade 8, receiving an Honorable Mention. Sohenee Banerjee and Meghana Karinthi, both grade 8, received First Awards in Medicine/Health/Gerontology, with Jerry Chen and Jimmy Lin, both grade 8, receiving Second Awards.
Rajiv Movva, grade 8, was one of two winners in Biochemistry/Microbiology, winning a First Award. The other, eighth grader Anooshree Sengupta, won a Second Award and an Honorable Mention from the Society of Vacuum Coaters.
Harker picked up a pair of wins in Botany, with First Awards going to Anastasiya Grebin and Stephanie Swanson, both grade 8. In Environmental Sciences, eighth graders Aadi Ghildiyal and Sohini Kar received Honorable Mentions.
In Physics, Sushant Thyagaraj, grade 8, took home a Second Award. Fellow eighth grader Shaya Zarkesh won a First Award in Engineering, along with $50 and an Award for Electro-Technology from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
It’s not easy being a new parent. So discovered grade 8 students who, after spending a week caring for five-pound flour sack “babies,” better understood the demands of having a newborn.
For a week in early February, as part of their health education curriculum, eighth graders were responsible for the well-being of their babies at all times, taking them to and from school, bringing them to classes and arranging for childcare when needed.
Ensuring the safety of their sack babies enabled the students to earn points for both science and health education. However, they lost points due to any abuse or neglect of their babies.
The project, while fun, was taken seriously, complete with day care centers set up for “parents” participating in after-school activities. Students also took turns serving as babysitters for each other.
“The purpose of the project was to give the students an idea of what it is like to have a baby and be responsible for it while at school for an entire week,” said Harker P.E. specialist Chrissy Chang, who annually spearheads the middle school project.
This story originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
By Debbie Cohen and Zach Jones
Even Democrats and Republicans agree on the crucial need for American students to become computer literate. To help meet that need, Harker, which already promotes computer science (C.S.) education in all grades, has been systematically upgrading its C.S. program at the middle school.
A new required programming class for grade 7 and an advanced programming elective were added at the start of the school year. Harker also beefed up various elements of the C.S. program for the middle school’s entire student body (grades 6-8).
The expanded C.S. program aims to provide students with a foundation to become well-rounded programmers in the future, according to Abigail Joseph, middle school computer science teacher.
“Courses at each grade level provide students with not only foundational programming concepts, but also curriculum that develop students’ critical thinking, problem-solving and design abilities,” she said.
“We are definitely seeing an upswing in interest in computer science,” reported Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs.
Since Eric Nelson became the chair of the upper school computer science department in 2010, that program has matured significantly, now offering a number of pathways to students interested in entering the field as a career.
Nelson said his desire to create a comprehensive and effective C.S. program stretches back more than two decades, when he found himself unsatisfied with the level of competency he saw in many of his co-workers. “At that time I remember swearing if I was ever, ever in a position where I could teach students computer science, I would make sure I didn’t have people like this walking into my office,” he said. He began taking copious notes. When the time finally came for him to develop a curriculum, “I already had the framework, and so that’s what we ended up with.”
Upper school students fulfill their C.S. requirements in the Digital Worlds class, which covers basic concepts, how computers work and algorithmic thinking. Those who are interesting in furthering their C.S. education can take either an introductory or advanced programming class. Depending on their choice of class, students may then enter one of two Advanced Placement classes, one for introductory students and another for those who have completed advanced programming. Both AP classes lead into more advanced topics.
The program is also designed to allow teachers freedom to move students into different areas of the program as necessary. “If a kid says they’re interested in computer science, the first thing I ask is, well what have you done?” Nelson said. If their experience is limited they are directed to either of the starting programming classes. Those students who demonstrate a certain level of experience become eligible to take a challenge exam to determine whether they can skip the programming courses entirely.
“It’s not an exam on Java or any other language,” Nelson said. Instead, it tests the student’s ability to think algorithmically and their understanding of key concepts. “How they approach a problem will tell us that.”
Although the program has not yet reached K-3 in earnest, students do begin learning key concepts related to computer science, such as algorithmic thinking, problem solving and logical reasoning, as early as kindergarten. This year, kindergartners also will begin playing a board game that introduces some programming concepts. In the coming years, actual teaching of computer science will be slowly integrated into the lower grades.
Currently, grade 2 students are learning computer science concepts by working with robots that can be programmed by placing cards in a certain order. Next year, grade 3 students will use Pro-Bots that will be programmed manually to execute more complex instructions. Grade 4 students learn to program simple games, and grade 5 students go deeper into programming while also learning binary code and searching and sorting algorithms. “We do all of that with very little use of the technology,” said Lisa Diffenderfer, K-8 computer science chair. “We learn binary sort with a deck of playing cards. We learn some searching algorithms by playing ‘Battleship’-type games.”
As with the upper school, understanding computer science on a conceptual level is important to the lower and middle school computer science programs. “We really stress the underlying principles and fundamentals of programming and not one specific language,” said Diffenderfer. “We don’t want to teach one language because we don’t know what the language of the future is going to be.
It used to be C++ and now it’s Java. Who knows what it’s going to be 10 years from now?”
In fact, C.S. curriculum is so sorely lacking in many other schools that both President Barack Obama and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-VA, have united to support the recent launch of the “Hour of Code,” a massive publicity campaign to promote scholastic computer science education.
Due to the global effort, more than 33,000 schools in 166 countries dedicated time to computer science education as part of Code.org’s initiative, which was timed to coincide with Computer Science Education Week in December. The Hour of Code was part of Code.org’s broader campaign to encourage computer science education in more classrooms.
“The impact of the Hour of Code to change communities and propel computer science education to a new level of awareness globally is tremendous,” affirmed Joseph.
The Bureau of Labor estimates that more than 140,000 computer science jobs are added to the American economy every year, making it one of the fastest-growing occupations. Yet, according to the National Science Foundation, just 40,000 college students are graduating with computer science degrees.
“When part of a high-quality academic program, computer science classes add an element that helps all students navigate our complex, technologically driven world. It also gives our graduates an edge over those who are not taught these increasingly essential skills,” Dan Hudkins, Harker’s K-12 director of instructional technology, was quoted as saying in an article that originally appeared in the summer 2013 issue of Independent School Magazine, and also was printed in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
UPDATE: Videos of the keynote speakers, breakout sessions and the panel discussion from this year’s Research Symposium are now available on YouTube.
Science enthusiasts from across the Harker community gathered at the upper school campus on March 29 for this year’s Harker Research Symposium. In the nearly 10 years since its founding, the research symposium has provided lovers of scientific research with an eventful day in which students, parents, faculty and staff meet to share their enthusiasm, see the results of student research and hear from notable members of the scientific community.
The Nichols Hall atrium was once again the epicenter of activity for the event, with exhibitors from companies such as Google, NVidia and the South Asian Heart Center providing information to passersby and holding tech demos. SeaLife Aquarium Maintenance, stationed in front of the atrium’s aquarium, gave attendees the opportunity to observe and touch starfish and other forms of aquatic life. Tesla Motors also had a presence, giving people a chance to test drive one of their award-winning electric cars. Over at the rotunda, Brian Tuan, grade 12, demonstrated a 3-D printer to a steady stream of onlookers as it constructed such objects as a toy car and a plastic model of Batman’s head.
Nichols Hall auditorium and classrooms hosted formal talks by Harker students known as breakout sessions, where students gave detailed presentations on their research projects. Some of these, such as senior Vikas Bhetanabhotla’s project on the identification of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxys and Zareen Choudhury’s investigation of the chemical makeup of stars, earned recognition in prestigious contests such as the Siemens Competition and Intel Science Talent Search. At the gym, middle and upper school students had poster presentations set up showing the results of research they had performed. Students were on hand to answer questions about their research projects, impressing those in attendance with both the depth of the research and their presentation skills.
Morning keynote speaker Claire Max, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at University of California, Santa Cruz, shared her work on adaptive optics with a capacity crowd in the auditorium. Using informative photos and videos, Max showed how turbulence in space can obscure telescopes’ view of the stars. Adaptive optics corrects this distortion using mirrors and laser technology. This technology, she explained, can be used to enhance images of planets and find out where black holes ended up as galaxies collided. It has also been used to enhance images of the human eye, which she demonstrated with close-up videos of blood cells traveling through capillaries.
Two alumni were featured as speakers at this year’s symposium. The first, Ilya Sukhar ’03, shared some of the lessons he learned (including some misconceptions he had during his years as a Harker student) in entrepreneurship as the founder and CEO of Parse, which was acquired by Facebook in 2013. Parse, which still operates independently, enables developers to more easily create mobile apps for multiple platforms. Nikhil Parthasarathy ’11, speaking during a special lunchtime event at Manzanita Hall, discussed his current exploits as an undergraduate at Stanford University, which included exciting work in artificial intelligence. He addressed Harker’s current students, telling them they may end up taking many paths, arriving somewhere they might not have anticipated.
Khan Academy founder Salman Khan was the star of the afternoon, packing both the auditorium and the gym, where all of the keynote addresses were simulcast. Khan talked about how what began as a hobby in 2004 – tutoring his cousin in math – turned into one of the world’s most popular online learning resources, used by more than six million unique visitors each month. During the extended question-and-answer session, Khan was kind enough to move from Nichols Hall to the gym for those who were unable to view his talk in person.
The day ended with a panel discussion featuring upper school science department chair Anita Chetty, science teacher Chris Spenner, Harker parent Manish Gupta (Aarzu, grade 6; Anika, grade 12), junior Jason Chu and seniors Bhetanabhotla, Stephanie Chen, Choudhury, Anika Gupta, Sreyas Misra and Vikram Sundar. The panel discussed the various options offered by Harker’s research program and included student testimonials on their experiences conducting research at Harker.