Anand Natarajan, 2009 Harker graduate, earned a gold medal in Mexico at the 2009 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in mid-July. The five-person U.S team earned four golds and a silver, tying for second with India and Korea, and coming in behind the Chinese team, which earned five gold medals.
In May, when selected as one of the 19 final qualifiers for the Olympiad team, Natarajan (on far left in the team photo) was forced to choose between attending the team’s preparation camp and his own graduation, and chose the preparation camp. “It was a tough call to skip graduation, but I think it was worth it,” he said. “I really enjoyed my experience with the physics Olympiad, and I think it’s helped me realize that physics is the subject I’m most passionate about.”
Over 300 students from about 70 countries participated. Problems included questions on tidal friction in the Earth-Moon system, laser cooling and determining the minimum radius for a stable main sequence star.
“The toughest part of the examination was the first question on the experimental portion,” said Natarajan. “It was necessary to get a really good alignment of all the optical components we were using to be able to get good measurements and that took a lot of time. Also, the official IPhO-supplied calculator was somewhat difficult to use, which really slowed me down throughout the exam.”
Tidal friction aside, “The most fun thing about the competition was probably just the experience of being with other young people who share my interest in physics,” said Natarajan. “I also really enjoyed some of the excursions to the Mayan archeological sites that the Mexican organizers planned for us.”
Natarajan has one other activity before he starts at Stanford in the fall: three days after he returned from Mexico he left for the Linguistics Olympiad in Wrocław, Poland, held July 26-31.
A new club on the MS campus, the Research Club, provides a conduit for budding researchers to refine their technique to prepare for large and small venue presentations, but the club wouldn’t be much help without the mentors that make it go.
Club advisors Lorna Claerbout, Ilona Davies and Scott Kley Contini worked hard all through the year to help students ramp up to a new level of research and presentation. The science research club in the MS is Claerbout’s “brain child,” noted Raji Swaminathan, science teacher. “She conceived the idea last year and put it all together and the rest of the department worked with her on that. The amount of time and energy she has devoted to organizing this club on a weekly basis, organizing the Synopsys competitors, and getting the kids ready for the symposium is really huge.”
Harker has encouraged an advancing atmosphere of research since Anita Chetty, US science department chair, was brought to Harker by Diana Nichols in 2001. Chetty started the Harker Research Symposium (HRS) in 2005, but her encouragement of young researchers goes way back: one of the 2009 HRS keynote speakers was Nimet Maherali, whose research career began in her Canadian high school when Chetty, then the AP Biology instructor at her school, “saw something in me that I didn’t see,” said Maherali.
Maherali’s path led to the University of Calgary and Harvard University, where she is a Ph.D. candidate in the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Cancer. In her speech, “Cellular Alchemy and the Making of a Research Scientist,” Maherali said that research begins with a question and hers was, “Can any cell become any other cell?” Her results, featured in Time magazine and Discovery Channel’s “Top 10 Science Moments of 2007,” may eliminate the need for embryonic stem cells in research and someday lead to therapies for diseases such as Parkinson’s or Lou Gehrig’s (ALS).
Now, via the MS Research Club, the process of developing good research habits has already paid off. Club member Jackie Wang, Gr. 8, earned a silver medal at the California State Science Fair (see full article, pg. 30). “Ms. Claerbout and Mr. Contini were really encouraging in helping me learn deadlines for applying to science fairs, brainstorm ideas for my experiment, know what steps I needed to prepare my application, and understand how to present the project,” said Wang. “The Synopsys Science Fair was lots of fun and the California State Science Fair was a great experience. Being able to participate in the science fairs made the hours spent in the lab nights and weekends all worthwhile. Having the chance to present my research in the beautiful new science building at the Harker Research Symposium was such a thrill. I would definitely encourage others interested in science research to join the club,” she said.
Chetty was generous with her praise of Harker for supporting the symposium as the pinnacle of the internal Harker research effort. She thanked everyone from workers who set up the rooms to administrators who saw her vision for the symposium as a real presentation venue. “The 2009 symposium was dedicated to Howard Nichols,” said Chetty, “and I want to acknowledge his work, and Diana Nichols’, in making the science center a reality. In addition, and in particular, I want to recognize all students out there who have asked a science question.”
The Harker Environmental and Recycling Team (HEART) presented activities and actions to help promote a greener school at the Santa Clara University Sustainability Decathlon on May 9, 2009. Senior Raghav Aggarwal, the club’s outgoing president, Akshay Aggarwal (incoming president), Gr. 10 and Christina Ma (incoming vice-president), Gr. 11, attended and won the award for technological innovation for their presentation.
Highlights of their presentation included how HEART is involved with helping students be more environmentally friendly and aware with their daily actions. They also mentioned how checking and maintaining adequate tire pressure could reduce carbon emissions by two tons, and illustrated how HEART recycles paper for the school on a weekly basis. In addition, the team encourages the reuse of plastic water bottles, as plastic takes a long time to decompose, and promotes the use of recycled paper in classrooms and for printing. Other efforts were the “Un-Plug That Appliance” Initiative, which encourages teachers to unplug classroom electronics when not in use. HEART also began work on a Wall of Fame in honor of students that have contributed to their efforts.
Anand Natarajan, Gr. 12, has been chosen as a member of the team that will represent the United States at the International Physics Olympiad in Mexico this summer. In April, Natarajan and classmate Vikram Nathan, Gr. 12, as well as Andrew Zhou, Gr. 11, were chosen as semifinalists to become a part of the team. Harker’s total of three semifinalists was higher than any other school in the nation.
Scheduling conflicts prevented Natarajan and Nathan from being able to attend both their Harker graduation and the Physics Olympiad training camp. Nathan, the 2009 valedictorian, stayed behind in California to speak to his fellow graduates. Natarajan made the difficult decision to attend the required training camp in Maryland in lieu of his graduation ceremony, and his hard work deservedly paid off. “The AAPT (American Association of Physics Teachers) would not let him miss a single day of the physics camp in Maryland, so he made a choice between two once-in-a-lifetime experiences,” said US physics teacher Eric Nelson.
At a special ceremony in late May, Butch Keller, US division head, presented Natarajan with his high school diploma, with family present.
Harker’s Varsity C team was named “Best Overall” in the country by the Junior Engineering Technical Society’s (JETS) annual Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition. The team, made up of seniors Daniel Kim, Hanh Dang, Jeffrey Mandell, Tsung-Ju Lu, Nikita Sinha, Kartik Venkatraman, Kevin Wang and Kevin Xu, will receive a $5,000 cash prize and a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
JETS is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to developing young people’s interest in engineering and technology. Each year, the organization holds its two-part TEAMS competition, in which students answer a series of questions dealing with different engineering scenarios. Every year, the competition has a different theme. This year’s theme explored the engineering principles used in theme parks.
Other Harker teams also performed well in the competition. At the national overall level, Harker’s Varsity D team (juniors Andy Fang, Jackie Ho, Vishesh Jain, Curran Kaushik, Arjun Mody, Haran Sivukumar, Kevin Zhang and Andrew Zhou) was ranked fourth, and the Varsity B team of seniors (Namrata Anand, Brandon Araki, Jeanette Chin, James Feng, Alex Han, Andrea Lincoln, Rachel Luo and Adam Perelman) placed eighth.
In the Division 2 category (which includes private schools containing more than 150 seniors), Varsity D took first place, with Varsity C earning second. Division 2 category rankings are based only on the second part of the competition. “D did better in part II, but C did better in part I, giving them the best ‘overall’ score,” said US math teacher and JETS advisor Anthony Silk. Also in Division 2, the Varsity A team took third. Tying for the 10th place spot was the Varsity B team of juniors Namrata Anand, Brandon Araki, Jeanette Chin, James Feng, Alex Han, Andrea Lincoln, Rachel Luo and Adam Perelman.
At the state level, the Harker’s four varsity teams took all of the top four Division 2 spots, with Varsity C placing first, Varsity B coming in second, Varsity D at third and Varsity A at fourth. In Junior Varsity Division 2 competition, Harker’s Junior Varsity B team of freshmen Lucy Cheng, Alexander Hsu, Revanth Kosaraju, Jeffrey Kwong, Ramya Rangan, Pavitra Rengarajan, Katie Siegel and Albert Wu earned the top spot to become the only JV team in Division 2 to qualify for the national competition, where they placed 27th overall. Harker’s Junior Varsity A team – sophomores Tracey Chan, Josephine Chen, Isaac Madan, Jerry Sun, Ben Tien, Susan Tu, Karen Wong and Kevin Tran – earned fourth.
Although they were not directly sponsored by the school, ninth graders Michelle Deng, Patrick Yang, Eric Kong, Vishesh Gupta, Frederic Enea and Daryl Neubieser nonetheless participated, taking second place in Junior Varsity Division 2.
Sierra Lincoln, Gr. 8, hauled in three awards at the VEX Robotics Championship of the Americas, held April 2-4 in Omaha, Neb. Lincoln won the Tournament Finalist Award, Second Place, in addition to being named the Programming Skills Champion and Robot Skills Champion.
US biology teacher Anita Chetty’s students had the opportunity to do some bona fide field work in late March, as they traveled to the San Francisco Zoo to see various species of wildlife and examine how they adapted to their surroundings. The students also went to the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve to retrieve plant life and bug specimens, which they then took back to the laboratory to examine and identify.
At the lab, the students used power ful microscopes to examine their findings. The microscopes also have built-in digital cameras that allowed the students to take high-resolution photos of the specimens and examine them on their laptops.
A group of Gr. 7 boys, Andrew Zhu, Kevin Moss, Darian Edvalson, Nikhil Dilip and Adarsh Battu, competed in the Department of Energy Regional Science Bowl Competition at the National Hispanic University in early March. The team, organized by Harker parent Ian Edvalson, met every other weekend throughout fall to practice science questions – and to play! Many other teams practice twice a week, and, “that they were able to win third place with such relatively little practice is testament to the outstanding preparation students receive in our middle school science program!” said US Spanish teacher and mom Diana Moss. “Kudos to Ian Edvalson!”
A group of Gr. 4 students took a special trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco on April 14, seeing a wide variety of exhibits to help them expand on their classroom science education.
Students watched dry ice move around in water, which exemplified the ways comets move through space. They also got to make a six-foot-by-six-foot soap film that, when light shone on it, made a variety of ever-changing color and wave patterns. “My group enjoyed blowing on the film and seeing the changing colors and waves,” said publications coordinator Desiree Mitchell (parent of Lyndsey, Gr. 4), who served as one of the chaperones on the trip.
The real attraction for the students, however, was the dissection of a cow’s eye. “The kids were lined up and waiting for the demonstration to begin,” Mitchell said. “They were very interested in the inner workings of the eye and asked many questions.”
The yearly Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship, held March 18 in downtown San Jose, was once again a big success for US and MS Harker students.
Denzil Sikka, Gr. 12, was one of two Top Senior High Award winners from Harker, earning a Dr. Paul Callahan Technical Paper Award for having one of the best technical papers shown at the fair dealing with physical and biological sciences. Her paper, titled “Aging is Predictable – Biomarkers of Aging: Age Prediction by Use of Mathematical Models of Biomarkers” also netted her a $100 prize. She also received a $200 cash prize for winning the Intel Excellence in Computer Science Award.
Harker’s second Top Senior High Award winner was Isaac Madan, Gr. 10, for his paper “The Impact of the Planar Cell Polarity Pathway Function on the Structure of the Cerebellum.” Madan took home the Grand Prize Alternate in biological sciences and earned a trip to the state science fair.
Madan and Haran Sivakumar, Gr. 11, who also earned a trip to the state science fair, both placed first in the Medicine/Health/Gerontology category. Rahul Ahuja, Gr. 12, earned a second place award in the Individual Project subcategory and received an honorable mention from the U.S. Army.
Harker also had a number of winners in the competition’s Computers/Mathematics category. Andrew Stanek, Gr. 12, took first place in the Individual Project subcategory, and received second place in the Technical Paper subcategory. Senior Dominique Dabija was given a second place award in both the Technical Paper and Individual Project subcategories.
In the Biochemistry/Microbiology category, Elena Madan, Gr. 12, Alex Han, Gr. 11 and Peter Gao, Gr. 10, were all second place award winners for Individual Project. Madan also received a $200 cash prize from the Palo Alto chapter of the Association for Women in Science. Aaron Lin, Gr. 12, was awarded $100 and an Achievement Certificate from the Santa Clara County Biotech Education Partnership.
Ramya Rangan and Kathryn Siegel, both Gr. 9, won an honorable mention for their team project in the Botany category, while Emily Carr, Gr. 12, was awarded a certificate and a medal from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for her project in the Environmental Sciences category. Senior Anand Natarajan’s paper, “Spatial Control of Gene Expression using CT-guided Collimated X-rays to Modulate Transcription,” earned him a first place award in the Technical Paper category, with fellow senior Baladitya Yellapragada taking a second place award in the same category for the paper “Virtual Worlds for CPR.”
Lastly, but not leastly, Jerry Sun, Gr. 10, earned a first place award for Technical Paper in Zoology for his work, “Cinnamomum Verum Bark Essential Oils Affect on the Movement of Ants.”
On the MS side, students came up big in the Physics category. Vikas Bhetanabhotla, Gr. 7, took home a second place award in Individual Project, and also received a Certificate of Achievement from the NASA Ames Research center, as well as a VIP visit to the NASA Ames facility and an honorable mention from the United States Coast Guard. Fellow seventh graders Allen Cheng and Daniel Pak also hauled in a second place award for their team project, which received an honorable mention from ASM International, formerly known as the American Society for Metals. Another seventh grader, Brian Tuan, received an honorable mention for Individual Project, as did Michaela Kastelman, Gr. 8, who also hauled in a $100 cash prize and earned a $100 donation to the MS science department from Trimble Navigation.
Ashvin Swaminathan, Gr. 8, was the winner of a first place award in the Individual Project area of Biochemistry/Microbiology, while Jennifer Dai, Gr. 7, and Suchita Nety, Gr. 8, received honorable mentions for Individual Project in the same category.
In Engineering, Varun Gudapati, Gr. 8, was the winner of a second place award for Individual Project and received the first place award from ASM International, which included a $100 cash prize. Vikram Sundar, Gr. 7, was another Engineering award recipient, receiving an honorable mention from ASM International and a HP35s scientific calculator from Hewlett-Packard.
Ramakrishnan Menon and Benjamin Yang, both Gr. 8, received the second place award for Team Project in Environmental Sciences, and both also received a certificate of achievement from the American Meteorological Society.
In the Medicine/Health/Gerontology category, eighth grader Jacqueline Wang was a Top Junior High Award Winner, winning an Isabelle Stone Award for Best Biological Science Projects, which included a plaque, a $100 cash prize and a trip to the State Science Fair. Wang also earned a first place award for Individual Project, a certificate from the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and a Board of Directors Award in the Middle School category from the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association. Zina Jawadi, Gr. 7, received an honorable mention. Nikhil Baradwaj, Gr. 8, was given a Certificate of Merit from the American Psychological Association.
Elsewhere, Paulomi Bhattacharya, Gr. 8, received a first place award for Individual Project in Earth Space/Sciences. Bhattacharya was also invited to the State Science Fair and the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, and received a Special Award for Geoscience Excellence from the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Association for Women Geoscientists.
For the school’s performance at the fair, Harker received an Outstanding School Award, and US biology teacher Kate Schafer won an Outstanding Teacher Award. Congratulations, obviously, are due all around!