5 minute read
Science Fair
TRAILBLAZING SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURE
BY J. RENEE CUNNINGHAM COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING SPECIALIST
The newly established Allen High School Science Club took its first trailblazing adventure to the Texas A&M University Regional Science Bowl. This fast-paced quiz format competition is based on knowledge of science facts. The event is a significant competition for many senior level science teams from schools across the state. Most participating schools engage in robust year-long prep programs leading up to this event. Allen’s fledgling team of students, with just one week of formal preparation, impressively landed in the top five of over 30 Dallas schools, and top ten in the state at this year’s competition.
“I was blown away at some of the things that these kids knew,” said second year Allen High School Teacher Rachel Chisholm. Chisholm is the Forensic Science team lead and sponsor for the Science Club and Science Fair.
The club’s adventure began with fliers that were posted in the science classrooms. “I simply asked if anyone was interested in being an officer and helping to develop it to show up to the first meeting,“ said Chisholm.
Those strategically placed flyers attracted seniors Howard Ding and Victor Nguyen. This new club opened an opportunity for them to share their passion and curiosity for science in a fun and casual social environment. “The students came in and we picked positions. They wrote the bylaws and created this club,” said Chisholm.
That meeting installed Ding and Nguyen as the club’s first co-presidents. The other club officers include senior Joshua McPherson, junior Sanjana Kishore, sophomore Advik Ravichandran and sophomore Rafay Azeem. Since establishing the club the students have done exactly what they envisioned. Every other Monday they do something fun for the campus. “They have done things like egg drops or pulling DNA out of strawberries,” said Chisholm.
The co-presidents soon discovered that members of the club wanted further academic challenges as many already took part in rigorous UIL academic competitions and AP level courses. They took the initiative to utilize interest surveys to focus on
how to best support the students’ passion.
“We saw a collective opportunity to offer students competitive science programs in Quiz Bowl and Olympiad Team programs,” said Ding. These programs focus on fostering a collaborative environment among students to solve complex problems. Ding and Nguyen decided to set their sights on a target, the National Science Bowl. The Bowl is a series of math and science competitions among teams of high school students throughout the country. Texas A&M University was one of 65 host sites for this year’s Science Bowl regional competitions.
“Our two presidents have been really strong this year,” said Chisholm. “They emailed Texas A&M themselves. They were late to the deadline, but still wanted to try to participate.” Their diligent effort earned Allen admission into the bowl.
Next, they recruited and selected club members to participate. The team consisted of four Allen sophomores whose interests ranged from business to artificial intelligence. Warith Rahman, Dan (Tinh-Dan) Ha, Alexander Tandon, Anthony Xu were ready and excited to soar into the unknown. “The concept of this competition intrigued me, so I decided to try it out,” said Ha
The quiz bowl, which normally takes place in person, took place virtually on Saturday, Feb. 5, following ice storms just days before. The college freshman level question-and-answer categories included biology, chemistry, earth and space science, energy, mathematics, and physics.
Instead of competing directly against another school, each team answered a minimum of 18 questions. Each correct answer garnered an opportunity to earn a bonus question which allowed a team to answer up to 36 questions in each round. There were six elimination rounds in the competition.
“I did not have high expectations. I knew other schools had a full year of different preparatory competitions that led to this one. We did not have that infrastructure in place. I expected us to do the practice rounds and be eliminated,” said Chisholm.
“The first round was not our best round. The teams have seven seconds to answer each question. This round was the first time the team of students had ever met all together. The timeline from their signing up for the team to approval for the competition was about one week.” The students used textbook resources, sample questions and individual meetings with Chisholm to prepare for the Quiz Bowl, but they never met together as a team. “They immediately regrouped and developed a game plan. They met right after the first round Zoom, brainstormed, and produced a plan of how to do better.” They had two practice rounds to figure out their strategy before they faced the first elimination round. Chisholm said, “When we made the first round, the excitement and joy was like, wow, we are really doing this thing! “
Competing against senior level groups from numerous high schools throughout the region, the young team used their intelligence, quick thinking, and ingenuity to power through to the Round of 12 teams, the third Round Elimination.
When asked if he would do it again, team member Warith Rahman said, “Of course! I really enjoyed the competition itself, and the intense timing of it made it even more enjoyable and thrilling. I also really liked working with Mrs. Chisholm, Anthony, Dan, and Alex this year to advance as far as we could, and I’m definitely ready to participate more in the future to see how far we can get Allen in this competition.”
“We are proud of our students and their accomplishments this year in the Texas A&M Regional Science Quiz Bowl. Our team was able to compete with other competitive schools such as St. Mark’s and Plano East. We are laying the groundwork for the future of a successful program aimed at bringing academic prestige to Allen,” said Ding.
