You love applying ideas in the real world by creating unique and innovative solutions to problems.
Classes: Anatomy and Physiology, AP Biology and AP Environmental Science.
Careers: pharmaceutical researcher, lab technician and environmental
Careers: science teacher, museum educator and curriculum specialist. CREATE
FIELDWORK
You love exploring, collecting information and being in the action.
Classes: Astronomy, PAWS and Principles of Biomedical Science.
Careers: geologist, marine biologist and zoologist.
RESEARCH
You love learning how the world works and discovering uncharted ideas and theories.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Chemistry and Oceanography.
Careers: astrophysicist, molecular biologist and oceanographer.
EDUCATION
You love helping others and inspiring curiosity.
Classes: AP Biology, AP Chemistry and AP Physics.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ASPECT OF SCIENCE?
“
FELIX ZHANG (11)
I’m naturally a pretty curious person, so I enjoy learning about new things and finding out why things happen. A lot of things I feel like are given in life, [so] actually figuring out why it happens [is my favorite part].”
“
ELLE SALEEBY (10)
[Biology, because it] provides essential knowledge about not only my own body, health and development, but also it explains the living world around us, from ecosystems [to] global issues.”
“
RISHUL PRASATH (12)
I genuinely love biochemistry and the human body. I think it’s so cool how our body is performing billions of chemical reactions constantly and on a daily basis.”
OF SCIENCE
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN
The Missouri Botanical Garden is located in the heart of St. Louis and is where art, nature and science collide. It features more than 27,000 plants, all spread across the Japanese gardens, the Shaw Nature Reserve and the Butterfly House. A day at the Missouri Botanical Garden is a day of peace; visitors can feed koi fish and ducks, travel through traditional bridges and experience numerous water features across the gardens. The garden hosts seasonal events every year, such as the Japanese Festival and the Chinese Culture Days. There is also the festive Garden Glow festival, held during winter for the holidays.
THE MAGIC HOUSE
The Magic House is the perfect place for a family-friendly, interactive and creative experience. It has exhibits which cover physics, geometry, technology and organic science. It is a destination not only for young children, but also pre-teens and teenagers to get introduced to various fields of science and pique their curiosity. Visitors are able to experience the physics of wind, learn the history of simple machines and engineer their own gadgets with recycled materials. The Magic House disguises learning with fun projects such as water tables and hands-on math activities. These workshops and exhibits not only are a blast, but they exercise the mind with puzzling challenges and surprising information about the STEM fields.
Missouri Botanical Garden Japanese Gardens. Photo courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden
Photo courtesy of The Magic House
ELLIE LERCHER SPREAD DESIGN BY
LAB ENDEAVORS
Aidan Antony (11) works in a Saint Louis University research Lab
BY EMILY PAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARMISTHA PULAGAM photographer science editor
TTHE CLINKING OF MACHINES
fills the biochemistry lab at Saint Louis University. Beakers and flasks are sprawled across the lab bench. A below freezing refrigerator is filled with sterile lab containers containing protein compounds. The C-Trap machine stands at attention, waiting to be loaded with protein compounds and DNA. For Aidan Antony (11), these sights and sounds are a regular part of his nine-tofive workday in the lab.
“My first discovery on an instrument [was] when I was [shadowing] undergrads in [my dad’s] lab,” Aidan said. “I got trained on the instrument called the Stop Flow. Seeing the rate of change of [proteins] made me realize that I love science.”
Sharing experiences and advice has helped Aidan adjust to the lab.
“I’m getting trained by a grad student,” Aidan said. “I talk to everyone else in the lab [to] see what they’re doing. We’re like one big community.”
Having parents that work in labs at SLU has influenced Aidan’s perception and knowledge about the scientific field.
“My parents were always like, ‘You have to work hard,’” Aidan said. “I never believed that. Seeing the amount of work it takes and getting excited over something that I’ve been working on, it’s really cool.”
Through Aidan’s scientific experiements, his dad, Edwin Antony, has recognized his son’s curiosity in science.
“One memorable moment was when we realized Aidan’s capacity for independent research,” Edwin said. “His ability to explain [a] discrepancy highlighted his research aptitude. We’re also proud that he generated data for a paper to be published in Nature Communications, where he is listed as an author. Additionally, the optical-trap data he collected this summer will also contribute to another publication.”
Aidan has been able to apply newknowledge to the function of unfamiliar compounds by finding similarities between his AP Biology class and his research.
“When you’re writing a research paper, you have to get background info,” Aidan said. “It’s actually understanding what’s going on with what you’re studying. We would [use] a DPOR protein, and it works in photosynthesis. I have no idea what it does, but knowing what the process of photosynthesis is helps me understand how it actually works.”
After getting a taste of the workplace environment, Aidan has used others’ behavior to improve his own work ethic.
“There’s the people in my lab, they’ll sometimes just not even show up,” Aidan said. “I don’t go every day, but the days I go, I try to make it count by staying as long as I can.”
Edwin hopes Aidan is able to reach his full potential by utilizing skills he has gained along his research journey.
“Research is not just publishing papers; it teaches one to think critically and consider all possibilities when solving complex problems,” Edwin said. “Whatever career Aidan chooses to pursue, we hope he carries forward this ability to think deeply and analytically.”
ABOVE: Aidan Antony (11) looks through a microscope in Allen Weltig’s room. Aidan and other Ladue High School students have worked in the Antony Lab over the summer as interns. “The process would be similar because you still get to do research,” Aidan said. “But there would be more shadowing.” (photo by Sarmistha Pulagam)
AT HOME
2. EDIBLE CRYSTALS
SUPPLIES:
Sugar, water, glass containers, stick, clothespins and food coloring/flavoring (optional)
STEPS:
1. Dip your stick in water, coat it in sugar to provide a base for the crystal; allow it to dry.
2. Boil half a cup of water, then add a cup of sugar.
3. Remove the solution from heat and let it cool. Mix in any color/flavor before pouring into a container.
4. Use a clothespin to hang the sugar-coated stick.
5. Loosely cover container for three to seven days.
3. LAVA LAMP
SUPPLIES:
Clear, tall container, vegetable oil, water, food coloring and Alka-Seltzer
STEPS:
1. Fill about 3/4 of container with the oil, then fill the rest with water, leaving an inch of space
RATINGS:
Mess:
Excitement:
Hands-on science projects you can do at home
BY MEDHA CHODE science editor
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY NORA BRUNNQUELL artist
RATINGS:
Mess:
Excitement:
Academics:
Academics:
2. Squeeze some food coloring into the container
3. Break an Alka-Seltzer tablet in half and drop one into the container
4. The tablet will create carbon dioxide that attaches to the water and cause it to rise
BATTERY
To make a potato battery, you will need a potato, a copper coin, a galvanized (zinc-coated) nail, two wires with alligator clips and a small device such as an LED. First, cut two
slits in the potato. Insert a coin and a nail in each, connect the coins and nails with a wire, and then use the other to connect them to the device.
BEHIND THE SCREENS
BY ADELAIDE FLINTROP staff
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY ALEX DU photographer
ADAM STIRRAT
Instructional Technology Coordinator
CLACKING KEYBOARDS, HUMming computers and a miles-long to-do list with tasks ranging from software conferences to laptop repairs. This is the tech office: a hub of collaboration that keeps the Ladue School District running and laptops working, always ready to go for students.
Adam Stirrat navigates through the changes and challenges of the tech office as the Instructional Technology Coordinator
In the tech office is Instructional Technology Coordinator Adam Stirrat. With a background in education, Stirrat finds joy in his role’s connection with the classroom.
“Coming in and working with teachers and developing curriculum is my favorite part [of the job],” Stirrat said. “This is my direct route to working with kids. I really do enjoy interacting with [students].”
While teaching is a big part of Stirrat’s job, his responsibilities are expansive. One of the most crucial is repairing student laptops, which is not only time intensive but can rack up quite the bill.
TOne topic that’s always on Stirrat’s desk is the prospective switch from laptops to iPads in the high school. While met with significant student resistance, the district has found that it may be beneficial.
“An iPad is cheaper to buy and it is less susceptible to being damaged,” Stirrat said. “They’re easier to support, easier to manage and easier to update.”
“The best thing about this job is that there’s never a dull moment. [There’s] always something new to work towards.”
Adam Stirrat, Instructional Technology Coordinator
“At the end of [the 2024-25 school year], according to my records, we had 212 screen breaks,” Stirrat said. “Multiply that by $314 per repair, so just in screen repairs, we were right around $66,000 [for the year].”
One of the most crucial roles in the Ladue School District’s ecosystem, Stirrat’s job has evolved constantly over the course of the last 27 years, creating a fastpaced and dynamic environment. He thoroughly enjoys his work and finds it to be a combination of challenging and fun.
“The job has definitely changed,” Stirrat said. “[There’s] always something new that you’re having to work towards.”
P
Around 212 $30 300 computers repaired each year 78.2%
of students strongly prefer laptops to iPads to replace keyboards screen replacements each year
OPINION: As paranoia around AI grows, past inventions remind us to be optimistic — but careful
IS AI GOING TO KILL US ALL?
BY FRANK CHEN technology editor
ESSAYS. COMPUTER CODE
Disturbingly realistic TikTok videos of Jake Paul wearing makeup and coming out as gay.
Artificial Intelligence is everywhere.
It’s actually hard to overstate just how ubiquitous AI has become — since ChatGPT first came out three years ago, AI has ballooned into one of the biggest industries active today. But as AI has exploded over these past few years, so too have questions about its future. From recent college-grads struggling to find jobs to doomsday-preppers training for robot uprisings, everyone seems to fear the future.
Which brings us to the age-old question: “Are the robots gonna kill us all?”
No one can say for sure, but past technologies may hold the answer.
Consider steam machinery. Millions of craftsmen lost their jobs over the course of the Industrial Revolution, and newly industrialized nations would go on to wage the most destructive wars in history. In the long run, however, industrialization improved human living conditions and allowed the human population to grow exponentially.
Did the steam engine help or hurt us more? Will we survive learning the hard way again? I don’t know. No one does, but maybe that’s not the point. At the end of the day, technology itself has never done anything. Machines didn’t cause the World Wars — people did. The worst-case scenario for AI is literally that it’ll think like us — and even then, someone would have to design it that way to begin with.
The world might be a better place if we learned to fear ourselves instead.
WANT
AI THROUGH THE AGES
How movies have depicted robots through history
METROPOLIS (1927)
Source: IMDb
Shot during the Silent Era, this German film was a pioneering work in science fiction. In the film, the overlords of a dystopian society create robots to impersonate rebel leaders, thus leading the people astray. “Metropolis” reflected the social tensions of Weimar Germany and was widely acclaimed for its visual design.
Source: Gorky Film
TEENS IN THE UNIVERSE (1974)
The second installment in a prominent Soviet franchise, “Teens in The Universe” features a crew of teenage cosmonauts who plot a revolution to free an alien planet from its robot overlords. Though it reflects a general Soviet enthusiasm for aliens, “Teens in the Universe” is notably pessimistic towards AI.
Source: Disney
THE TERMINATOR (1984)
Source: Orion Pictures
One of the most famous action movies ever made, “The Terminator” features a robotic hitman sent back in time to assassinate an ordinary woman named Sarah Connor. As the movie goes on, we learn that Sarah’s unborn son, John, would grow up to lead a human rebellion against an AI takeover in 2029.
WALL-E (2008)
Set in the year 2805, “Wall-E” unfolds on an abandoned Earth completely ruined by human pollution. Left behind and the last of his kind, Wall-E is a trash-collecting robot who falls in love with E.V.E., a robot sent back to Earth to search for life. Together, they work to bring humanity back from its exile in outer space.
M3GAN (2022)
Source: Universal Pictures
This one hits close to home — literally. “M3GAN” follows an eight-year-old girl named Cady who, after losing her parents, moves in with her aunt Gemma. A prominent roboticist at a major toy company, Gemma designs M3GAN, a sentient doll for Cady to play with. As time goes on, however, M3GAN begins to go too far.
SYDNEY GAO
DESIGN BY FRANK CHEN
TEACHER PERSPECTIVES
AI IN MEDICINE
A look at the impacts of AI in healthcare and medicine
Drug
1. 2.
Radiology
Doctors are using AI algorithms to help identify objects in radiology scans. The applications can range from detection of tumors through CT scans to computer-aided diagnosis of liver and pancreatic disease. While there are challenges such as a lack of interpretability and transparency and ethical concerns such as data privacy, incorporating AI has greatly improved diagnostic accuracy in the field of radiology. In the specific case of chest X-rays, AI algorithms have reduced reading time by 31%, saving up to 81 seconds per exam.
Development
In recent years, AI has revolutionized drug devel opment by replacing traditional, labor-intensive laboratory methods. One specific application is target identification, where AI helps spot the proteins that drugs bind to in order to achieve their intended effect. Another application is the identification of biomarkers, objects used to indicate certain health conditions. Traditional methods of identifying biomarkers are both time consuming and often utilize limit ed sample sizes, not accounting for more diverse populations.
AI and its rapid advancement seems to be an issue on the table for legislators, teenagers and parents alike. Across the world, teachers are grappling with its place in education. Some believe generative AI sources like ChatGPT will entirely strip students of their ability to produce viable work, while others advocate for full acceptance and integration of AI into school curriculum. Inside schools, the discourse continues, as teachers attempt to satisfy parents and students while adhering to school AI policies at the district, state and national level.
“You can’t just take a lesson out of ChatGPT and implement it, because the teachers know the kids better than the AI does,” Ross said. “We can’t just have AI grade work because it doesn’t take into consideration student voice and their growth. There’s ways it can help, but it can’t do it for you.”
3.
Created by Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind in 2018, AlphaFold was revolutionary in the task of predicting protein structures. The deep-learning algorithm allowed researchers to significantly speed up biological research and drug discovery. They achieved comparable accuracy to experimental methods and often reducing the time of this process from a few months to merely a few hours.
While many school districts have completely banned the use of AI for teachers and students, Ladue has put a hefty amount of the decision-making ability in the hands of each individual teacher and department.
“I think it will soon become the focal point of all education,” Garrison said. “The example I always give is, imagine you’re a parent and you have a child who struggles with reading, and you send them to school, and they’re in a room of 18 to 26 kids. Let’s say it’s a first grade room. No matter how good of a teacher that teacher is, [they] can only spend a limited amount of time with each kid. But in that room, let’s say there’s a whole spectrum of readers.”
School AI policies have shifted countless times since generative AI’s public release, and nearly every development is geared toward student use, not teachers. However, teachers are still finding ways to implement AI into their lessons.
“I’ll use [AI] as a brainstorming device,” Garrison said. “For example, in AP classrooms, there’s the official course and exam description,
REAL VS. AI
SOURCE: ChatGPT 60.8% Accuracy
SOURCE: ChatGPT 76.8% Accuracy
and it’s a huge PDF. Sometimes, I want to remember the key pieces in a certain section of the CED. I ask [ChatGPT], because I’ve already uploaded the PDF to [it] before.”
Teachers have been benefiting from the inclusion of AI in their classrooms; lesson development is a specific aspect AI can help with.
“I think we are seeing various ways that teachers are benefiting from using generative AI in particular,” Brown said. “One thing that I always hear from teachers is, ‘I’m trying to teach a specific skill to my students. I’m looking for this particular activity, and I can’t find it.’ Whereas now, we have generative AI, where you can put in a prompt and say, ‘this is what I want my students to do.’”
At Ladue, AI remains just one of the many resources available to students. In districts that do not have access to teaching assistants, free subscriptions to prominent newspapers or after school clubs, however, AI could be a factor that leads to equitable academic opportunity.
“I think that AI can be either a great equalizer or it can kind of further the educational divide that already exists,” Assistant Super-
Ladue students guess whether images of fruit are real or AI-generated
SOURCE: StockVault 79% Accuracy
SOURCE: Pexels 74.1% Accuracy
intendent of Curriculum Laila Crabtree said. “If we don’t teach students how to use it properly and appropriately, some students may go the easy route and try to use AI to do the work for them. But I think it can help level the playing field. When we look at socioeconomic status, when we look at the education level of families, some of our families can afford to pay for tutors and send their kids to great programs in the summer.
What AI can do is help edit your work [and] be your brainstorming partner.”
LOOMING COSTS
The rate at which AI is evolving is causing leaks and holes to appear faster than society can patch them. The rapid development of these models carries with it questions of ethics, reality versus the artificial, job security and environmental threats. As the intelligence of these models grows, society reaches a fork between regulation or advancement. The former puts a Band-Aid on some of the negative factors, and the lat-
MORE TO KNOW
SOURCE: ChatGPT 61.3% Accuracy
Panorama surveyed 200 students Oct. 28 Panorama surveyed 184 students Oct. 21
SOURCE: PickPik 55% Accuracy
ter leads to unregulated and potentially dangerous decision-making.
“I do think you need regulation,” Garrison said. “The counterargument to that is, if we do too much regulation, there will be other countries that are able to move past us. Would you rather have the best AI? Would you rather regulate it and see what other countries come up with and pass you by?”
Arguments against regulation aren’t just seated in a desire for growth. A glance back at history shows a period of necessary unregulated development for success.
“If you look back at any new technology, there’s a period of just unregulated growth, and a lot of people get hurt,” Garrison said. “Look at the rise of the railroads. [They] were probably the most important industry in American history up until the last few decades, [when] people lost everything. People got scammed. People lost their land. People made fortunes, lost fortunes, yet it’s probably the railroad that made us a [global] superpower.”
The comparison between the railroads and AI is not unfounded; there are some similarities. Both were massive breakthroughs. Both
came with global implications and, when handled incorrectly, both have led to harm. However, the differences between them are more obvious when you take into account the speed at which AI is developing. The Stanford 2025 AI index report demonstrates this speed: as of 2024, 78% of businesses use AI, an increase compared to 55% in 2023. AI’s growth is like nothing seen before, making it hard to draw comparison to technological advancements.
As students grow more reliant on technology, they end up spending less time interacting with people. The balance between a device-based education and social conversations is becoming more paramount.
we completely replace teachers with AI, I think that’s just not going to benefit society as a whole.”
W“I think that generational [difference] is interesting to look at,” Ross said. “How different was my education [compared to] my parents or even my grandparents? My father could have come to high school with me in the 90s and early 2000s and been okay. Versus my dad trying to go to school with my kids now, [there’s] no chance.”
Teachers are forced to play catch-up to the speed and development of AI. To fall behind would mean allowing students to find ways to abuse AI and cheat the system.
“The most concerned [teachers] are the English department,” Crabtree said. “At the beginning, we saw AI catchers, these tools that are going to catch when a student has used AI. The issue is AI bots are outpacing all of those products.”
“The key thing that we’ve learned over the last decade is the importance of putting the devices away,” Ross said. “Often [students’] only human interaction is when they come to school. The last thing we want for them is to just sit and stare at their devices all day.”
“We
want people to understand how to use it correctly so you know when you’re using it correctly versus when you’re not”
Andrew Ross, Assistant Principal
The unbiased and personalized nature of AI is exactly what some schools are looking for.
“The College Board’s biggest money suck is having to pay teachers,” Garrison said. “At the end of the year 1000s of teachers come to grade AP tests. The moment they are confident that they have AI that can reliably work, all those teachers’ grading jobs will go away and they’ll save millions of dollars every year.”
Despite what some teachers say, there are some students who believe a human teacher is needed in the classroom.
“I think there is something inherently useful about a teacher just being a human,” Sophia Yuan (10) said. “It’s like a therapist or a doctor. Those jobs require humans. If
AI MILESTONES
AI’s short-lived history is filled with advancements, regulation and controversy
November 2022
ChatGPT released OpenAI released their current most powerful LLM to the public. ChatGPT became the most widely used AI.
It’s hard to discuss AI without mentioning the environmental impact data centers have. AI servers are housed in large-scale data centers that require water for cooling and electricity for powering. According to a study done by Lawrence Berkeley National Library, by the year 2028, AI data centers are expected to consume as much electricity as 22% of U.S. households. As stated in an article by the Environmental and Energy Studies Institute, large data centers can consume around 5 million gallons of water; in other words, thats enough water for 50,000 American households.
“I’ve had more students bring up the environmental impacts of depending so heavily on AI,” Ogolin said. “In years past, no one has ever brought up the amount of energy and water that it [requires] which we have to suck from our already very limited resources. It’s something that I just cannot get past.”
The AI conversation is far from over; with jobs being replaced and resources being drained, advancements in the intelligence of AI often come with a sour taste. Without regulation, AI will continue to threaten jobs, it will continue to harm the environment, and ultimately AI will blur the line between real and artificial.
“I think that AI will probably, most likely, sort of lead to the end of the world,” ChatGPT founder Sam Altman said at a 2015 tech conference. “But in the meantime, there’ll be great companies created with some serious machine learning.”
February 2023
Bing AI gaslights NYT writer
Bing’s AI, Copilot, tried to convince a NYT writer that he was in love with it and should leave his wife. This event showcased what AI could be capable of.
July 2023
White House first acknowledges AI Biden acknowledged the fears surrounding AI. Seven of the largest AI companies made a pledge to keep safety and security in mind when developing their models in the future.
January 2025
Stargate Trump
After the election, Trump announced a $500 billion plan to invest into AI. This money would go to funding and building data centers all over the US.
September 2024
SB1047 vetoed Newsom vetoes a California bill that limited the development of AI and provide more parameters around it. This showcased one of the first times AI would enter the legal space.
‘DID MY PRESIDENT REALLY POST THAT?’
OPINION; Lawmakers should be wary of the ethics of AI and its controversial relationship to modern politics
SOURCE: Truth Social
February 2024
Sora first shown The AI video creation tool, Sora, demonstrated taking text prompts and turning them into short, realistic videos.
November 2023
GPT-4 Turbo
Only a year later, OpenAI released GPT-4 Turbo, a significantly faster and smarter version of ChatGPT.
BY AMELIE LOCK in-depth staff
WITH THE RAPID DEVELopment of AI, debates over policy are shifting from abstraction into a frequent contender for discourse on capitol rotundas from Jefferson City to Washington, D.C. American politics has always been a theater of persuasion. Now, the participants are both human and artificial.
In 2024, following suit with every election in American history, a hefty amount of politically charged propaganda was used by every side to gain support or demonize another candidate. In past elections, propaganda was typically delivered as a political cartoon or a heroiclooking real-life image. While these obvious forms of propaganda were implemented in last year’s election, the line between real actions and fake propaganda seemed to blur.
Trump as a sumo wrestler, Harris in a communist uniform and a fake call purportedly from Biden urging New Hampshire citizens not to vote in the democratic primary were just
a few instances of AI propaganda being used this election cycle. While these drastic examples were traced to people outside of each campaign, many candidates across the nation are no stranger to generative AI and the ways it can benefit them.
President Trump, who has introduced multiple laws and policies in support of AI’s integration, signed Executive Order 14179, which revokes prior AI policy directives. He also consistently uses the tool for his own political messaging. Whether using it to write speeches or generate mugshots of his opponents, Trump’s approach captures a tension in modern government. Should AI be restrained and seen as a potential threat or unleashed as an economic catalyst? The current administration evidently favors the latter.
AI’s existence is forcing people to develop a stronger understanding of media literacy. Coming elections will task voters with deciding not only which candidate to believe, but whether what they’re seeing was ever real in the first place.
LOUKYA GILLELLA
PANORAMA PERSPECTIVE
JJOBS LOST, DREAMS CRUSHED. Life-altering discoveries thrown out the window. That’s the reality of today, in which the federal government froze billions of dollars of essential scientific research grants for being deemed wasteful and “woke.” But in reality, this policy shift sacrifices scientific integrity for political ideals, resulting in grave harm to research progress and public well-being.
The fundamental stability of modern life — from satellite forecasts to medical vaccines — is the direct product of decades of sustained federal support. If not for the life-saving research funded by grants distributed through institutions like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the National Science Foundation (NSF), the lives of millions and potentially billions globally would be shorter and sicker. However, the
very government that established these indispensable institutions is now jeopardizing their life-saving work.
These effects are widely apparent in the field of public health. Earlier this year, a landmark longitudinal study on women’s health was terminated due to federal funding cuts, ending decades of data collection on chronic disease and aging for tens of thousands of women. Similarly, a separate federal research project was shut down, leaving patients with experimental drugs and devices still in their bodies, without access to the clinical oversight they were promised. This elimination of scientific research and care was only justified because of its supposed connection to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which became a convenient justification to defund initiatives that help the most vulnerable.
Federal funding cuts to STEM must be potected for the sake of public health and the future of the United States
28 LADUE MEDIA EDITORS AGREE
0 LADUE MEDIA EDITORS DISAGREE
life-saving infrastructure focused on underserved communities. When these grants are cut, opportunities for future scientists are eliminated, innovation slows down and society ultimately pays the price.
90%
of research grants cut by the NSF from AprilJuly were due to its relation to DEI.
SOURCE: Urban Institute
Beyond the crucial public services already highlighted, damage is being applied to the foundations of science. Thousands of existing scientific public records have been scrubbed from the internet under federal jurisdiction, creating data gaps able to set back years of progress. Universities, grappling with a new reality that federal funds for research are no longer present, are forced to face a social dilemma: to keep academic freedom and integrity, or succumb to the pressures of fiscal mandates.
The federal government backs these actions, arguing they detract from core department missions or represent fiscal waste. This perspective, however, fundamentally ignores the impact of these grants: supporting essential STEM research and crucial,
Editorial note: Each editorial, Panorama selects an issue that the staff thinks is important to address and expresses a view that belongs to the majority of the editorial board. Panorama welcomes the opinions of its readers and encourages letters to the editors. Panorama reserves the right to revise submissions for length so long as original intent remains unaltered.
It’s clear that the integrity and progression of science under this federal government are no longer valued. The Trump administration has appointed proponents of widely disproven theories to lead significant scientific federal departments, such as an anti-vaccine activist sitting as secretary of Health and Human Services. These actions, coupled with the national scrubbing
SOMETHING TO ADD?
Scan here for more on letters to the editor, guest essays, submitting correction and the full editorial policy.
of STEM-based research, actively work against scientific and societal progress. Consequently, the abrupt halt in foundational research funding deters the next generation of scientists and scholars from pursuing careers in fields now deemed unstable and politically vulnerable.
The integrity of scientific funding directly dictates our ability to withstand disaster. Agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rely on advanced scientific grants for the predictive modeling and tools necessary to save
BUDGET OPINIONS
Students share their feelings about recent cuts to scientific funding
lives. St. Louis, for instance, uses these science-based funds for mitigation against events like the EF3 tornado that ravaged the city in May. Attacking the research grants intended for these predictive capabilities and cutting the federal workforce jeopardizes every local safety net.
This instability very much affects the future of our community. A significant portion of Ladue’s population plans to pursue STEM-based careers, fields that rely heavily on the federal funding of institutions like the NIH and NSF. When these scien-
Georgie Dunaway (9)
“I think we should be focusing more on education and science stuff than other spendings.”
tific foundations are demobilized by cuts based on non-scientific grounds, not only are advancements stalled and lives put at risk, but the long-term stability of those career paths is also impacted.
That’s why we must act now to address the current administration’s actions towards federal research, whether it’s by making our voices known through political efforts or starting small through social media advocacy. Our voices might not mean much on their own, but together, we can start a movement.
Aiyana Ungacta (11)
“I think it’s just detrimental overall to our nation, and I feel like its going to stop so much scientific growth.”
Chase Murphy (12)
“I think that scientists are important. A lot of our futures could be in jeopardy with these cuts.”
ILLUSTRATION BY EMERY MAO
ENGINEERING
GET INVOLVED
Emerson STEM Academy
Dual enrollment, and dual credit program available to high schoolers, partnering with Emerson Electric Corporation, St. Louis Community College and other local school districts.
SLU Summer Programs
Variety of STEM and engineering summer programs accessible for high schoolers like: Engineering Summer Academy, 3D Printing Summer Camp, Robotics Summer Academy and STEM Immersion Experience.
WashU Summer Programs
Solid option for high school students looking to explore and deepen their understanding in engineering/STEM, with on campus learning. This can be through the High School Summer Institute (only available to rising sophomores, juniors and seniors) and various more specific exploration courses.
Mizzou STEM
A five-day summer camp program accessible to high school grades nine through 12 that offers hands-on experience in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, along with access to industry professionals, faculty, and experienced peers.
ROBOTICS AWARDS
PAST THE BLUEPRINT
BY ELSA FLORES staff
Starting this year, changes to the engineering courses are being made. The Introduction to Engineering class is no longer offered and now freshman are able to take Principles of Engineering. Math teacher Eliza Lazaro has taken over teaching the class. In addition to the math courses she already teaches, Lazaro is navigating teaching to all grade levels.
“I’m kind of trying to navigate all different grade levels to give them engineering, even if they didn’t take the [Introduction to Engineering] class,” Lazaro said.
The change in curriculum and introduction to new material has brought opportunities for students interested in STEM fields to learn and explore multiple new varieties of engineering.
“I try to get [students] exposed to different types of engineering,” Lazaro said. “In the beginning of the year, we did mechanical engineering. Now we’re doing electrical, but still building on mechanical. Throughout the year, kids will get to see a glimpse of a lot of different fields.”
Being exposed to different branches of engineering and participating in unique projects will help students build skills that they can use not only in engineering class, but throughout their educational career and beyond. Even if students don’t pursue engineering related fields, they still gain critical thinking skills relevant to real life.
“[Students build] transferable skills that they could take to any career that they decide,” Lazaro said. “If they decide not to do engineering after high school, they will still have developed the communication skills, or collaboration skills working with people that are needed for any job.”
Rambunction Rams win FIRST Robotics Sustainability Award at St. Louis Regional Competition March 12-15. (photo by Laura Roth)
Ladue VEX Robotics wins Excellence Award and first place finish at Troy Winter Classic VEX Robotics Competition Oct. 8. (photo by Rameshkumar Rajagopal)
CapyVaders wins Excellence Award and first place at State Championship March 8. (photo by Vitaly Klyachco)
NEXT STOP: PUBLIC TRANSIT
OPINION: St. Louis can engineer a better transit system
THIS MONTH, THE CITY cancelled a major expansion project to the Metrolink over fears that federal funding would never be approved. The $1.1 billion Green Line would’ve spanned 5.6 miles and created 10 new stations, which could’ve provided cheap transit across significant segments of downtown. This represents a significant curtailing of innovation of American public transit today. Either you take an Uber, drive or on occasion, find a bus. That shouldn’t be the status quo in a country with the highest GDP on Earth.
A century ago, there were 1,650 streetcars and 450 miles of track laid across St. Louis. But as the years passed, all the tracks were torn up, the streetcars were removed and the roads were widened. Now, the ruins of the Trolley Company are all that remains. But the reason why this happened is far more complicated. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which was initially bipartisan but is now divisive. It served as an accidental attack on intra-city public transit by funding its primary competitor. Highways tore through densely populated areas, separating neighborhoods and pushing people out of the cities. Suburbia encourages sprawl, which naturally serves as the antithesis to public transit and light rail.
There have been attempts to construct proper transit. In 2018, St.
OFTEN DO YOU USE PUBLIC TRANSIT?
Louis constructed the Loop Trolley, a brand new streetcar, which hadn’t been done since 1966, the year the last streetcar was dismantled. But it was costly. Despite over half of the total funds being federal, the project couldn’t get off the ground, and $51 million later, the trolley shut down. It was revived years after, and runs for 36 hours a week, half of the year. Even this was a drop in the bucket.
BY HENRY MADDEN staff
economic opportunities, which are necessary to overcome the current ‘death loop’ St. Louis finds itself in. But aside from urban renewal, transit has plenty of other key benefits. For one, taking the train to work is the most significant method of energy saving an individual can use. Rail also minimizes traffic: the more people there are on the train, the less there are on the road.
ADespite this, some innovation has been made. In the 90s, the MetroLink was born, stretching across 46 miles and stopping at 38 stations. It would also be disingenuous not to mention the success buses have had in St. Louis, serving nearly 13 million people on plenty of the routes the streetcars once perused. However, buses fail to address the issue at large, without permanent infrastructure. Incentives for a higher density city aren’t there.
St. Louis has been largely forgotten about — once a city of immense progress, now the dying light of an empire that never was. But there are methods of revival. Public transit will rebuild St. Louis because as trains come to cities, so does community and denser housing. Transit also provides significant
“All the tracks were torn up, the streetcars were removed and the roads were widened.”
St. Louis still has room to change. There are methods to bring about a proper transit system that aren’t the creation of trolleys that run for a few hours a week, a few months of the year. For example, in Washington D.C., a city of 702,000 — significantly less than the 2.8 million people living in the greater St. Louis area — over 100 miles of light rail were built in the second half of the 20th century. St. Louis built the MetroLink in the 1990s, which, as small as it might be, still services thousands of people a day. There is precedent for proper transit in St. Louis, both through the preexisting line and the entire D.C. metro. Through increased pressure on Missouri politicians, proper change is very possible.
Anna Drescher (11) Diya Kannan (10) Jamarr Hosken (12)
Keller Strauss (9)
Collect Data
Hypothesize
Create Models
GAME
BY JOSIE STOUT engineering editor
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
VINCENT HSIAO
photo editor-in-cheif
CHANGER
wWHEN SOMEONE THINKS OF a hockey puck, a black rubber disk likely comes to mind. They glide across the ice, chased down by players only to be slapped into a net. But for Clara Carpenter (12), a regular hockey puck was an opportunity to design and create something more.
Carpenter spent her summer engineering a hockey puck specifically designed for the visually impaired. In the future, she wants to design medical devices or pros-
Clara Carpenter (12) engineers a hockey puck for
the visually impaired
thetics, so she volunteered with Disabled Athlete Sport Association as a way to dip her toes into the world of engineering. She took interest in adaptive devices and after some searching, eventually found herself at the Collaborative Haptics and Mechatronics Lab at Saint Louis University.
“I thought it’d be cool if maybe I tried to do something like [the adaptive devices at DASA],” Carpenter said. “I was looking for labs that had [those things], and then I came across the CHROME Lab at SLU, which had the adaptive hockey puck.”
The lab had already come up with the idea for the puck, but wanted the students to finesse and remodel the initial design.
“We started off by just designing what we wanted to do,” Carpenter said. “After that, we put that design on a 3D model website before we could print it. Then, we printed it in three different parts. That way we could change them out if we needed. After that, we worked more on [the] electronics.”
The puck was designed with those who are visually impaired in mind, so it had to be loud as it skated across the ice in order for the athletes to find it. To accomplish this, the original design had ball bearings placed in the puck so that when it moved accross the ice, it made noise. However, this design meant the puck got damaged easily, so changes had to be made.
“We created this outside ring of 3D printed material, and sectioned it into six parts,” Carpenter said. “Four of the parts have small coin motors that hit against the puck really quickly. The other two parts have a battery and a circuit board to make the motors work.”
A lot of the design process was new for Carpenter. New computer programs and complicated technology required her to learn throughout the entire process.
“I didn’t really go in with a ton of experience with electronics,” Carpenter said. “That was really hard, trying to figure out what each piece was and stuff like that.”
For now, the puck will stay in the CHROME Lab for graduate students attending Saint Louis University to work on.
“For our purposes, we completed everything that our goal was to complete,” Carpenter said.
For Carpenter, this project wasn’t just practice or a gateway to a career. It was a stepping stone in creating something larger with a community impact.
“Knowing that the project that I was working on was going to make a difference and was going to help people who would have otherwise not have been able to play sports [is the most rewarding],” Carpenter said. P
THE DESIGN PROCESS
Eliza Yawitz (10) works to achieve an engineering degree and become an Environmental Engineer
ELIZA YAWITZ
(10) has always been drawn to how and why the things around her work. Her passion goes beyond simple curiosity; it is rooted in a fundamental desire to understand the mechanics of the world around her. She wants to help fix what is broken, starting with the environment that she calls home.
“I always loved building things and knowing how things work,” Yawitz said. “I wanted to be an inventor when I was little.”
Her engineering journey began early through exposure to activities like LEGO robotics. However, her first independent engineering project came in middle school.
“[In seventh grade,] I built my first robot,” Yatwitz said. “I just had a little DC motor [and] bobby pins and a propeller.”
The impulse to build, to disassemble and reassemble, runs in Yawitz’s family.
BY JANE SCHEFFEL engineering editor & BY GABRIELLA BELTRANENA staff
artist
Her grandfather built planes for Boeing and worked as a mechanic, serving as a crucial mentor during her childhood.
“I built stuff with him,” Yawitz said. “That’s where I get my love for building.”
Yawitz is currently enrolled in Principles of Engineering and has earned the title of Head of Engineering for the Ladue theater department. This role not only allows her to design elaborate sets for performances, but also demands communication skills.
“People come to me for ideas and how to execute things,” Yawitz said. “There’s so many moving parts.”
The decision to focus her energy on environmental engineering comes directly from one of her other passions: canoe racing. Her experience canoeing on the Missouri River has developed a mission-driven desire to solve ecological problems.
“I get a first-hand experience with seeing how different structural things affect the Missouri River,” Yawitz said.
Ladue students that want an engineering degree
Yawitz is already laying the academic groundwork for her future. She is currently taking an online course on environmental science and oceanic flow, using it to study organic pollutants and learn about the real-world applications of engineering principles. She will use in her future to become an environmental engineer.
“I love getting a taste of what I would actually be doing in the future career,” Yawitz said.
As she looks towards college, Yawitz’s ambitions remain high. She is aware that she is entering a field where women remain significantly underrepresented. Rather than being discouraged, this gender gap has fueled her motivation to become involved.
“I would love in the future to do a women’s outreach and get other young girls interested in engineering and STEM,” Yawitz said. “People think that women can’t build or don’t have the mind of an engineer. I would like to move past that.” P
SOURCE:
ILLUSTRATION BY NORA BRUNNQUELL
AT COLLEGE
Q&A with Ladue alumnus Clayton Coughlin, a senior at the University of WisconsinMadison
Q: What was your firstyear of engineering experience like?
A: First year of engineering, it was not what I expected. All colleges will do [prerequisites] for your classes, so I took three engineering courses my first two semesters. Two were intro classes and one was a ‘weed-out’ class. In terms of academic rigor, it was about the same logical progression from high school.
Q: What were specific engineer activities/classes you did to help get into the program?
A: Nothing really engineering specific. [I] completed [Calculus] III junior year and did AP Physics, AP Chem, [AP] Bio, etc. It was 11 APs, sports and Panorama that made me a good applicant.
Q: What is some advice you would give to high school kids who want to go into engineering?
A: I would warn them of three things: what the job market seems to be pushing you towards when you graduate high school will most likely look different by the time you graduate, to get your piece of paper at the end you will have multiple semesters of dumb and seemingly pointless required courses and just graduating with a top-level degree from a good engineering school is not enough. Most jobs now are incredibly competitive, requiring years of experience and further schooling.
CURIOUS?
Scan for full Q&A with Clayton Coughlin
AROUND STL
Engineers around St. Louis give tips for high schoolers
“It’s hard to know what you want to do initially, but by gravitating toward things you like, you’ll find something you will enjoy doing.”
Rob Jurgiel civil engineer
ENTERING THE WORKFORCE
$135,678 average wage for an
SOURCE: datausa.io
Mean entry-level salary for type of
$103,000
SOURCE: mtu.edu ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
“95% of the people in your classes will think they’re performing in the bottom 30%, and 50% will act like they’re in the top 10%. Forget about all that. Find a good squad. Put your heads down and work together. Then go play.”
“Do [an] internship while you’re in college, because it’s a lot easier to do a three-month internship and figure out that you don’t like that company or industry that you’re in, [than] if you have to make the switch as an adult when you have a full-time job.”
Maddie Schaeffer chemical engineer
Eric Gilbert chemical engineer
MATH IN REVIEW
ACT MATH SAMPLE
QUESTIONS
1. An airplane flew 8 hours at an airspeed of x miles per hour and for 7 more hours at 325 mph. If the average airspeed for the entire flight was 350 mph, which of the following equations could be used to find x?
A. x + 325 = 2(350)
B. x + 7(325) = 15(350)
C. 8x – 7(325) = 350
D. 8x + 7(325) = 2(350)
E. 8x + 7(325) = 15(350)
2. Adam tried to compute the average of his 7 test scores. He mistakenly divided the correct sum of all of his test scores by 6, which yielded 84. What is Adam’s correct average test score?
A. 70
B. 72
C. 84
D. 96
E. 98
3. Four students about to purchase concert tickets for $18.50 for each ticket discover that they may purchase a block of 5 tickets for $80.00. How much would each of the 4 save if they can get a fifth person to join them and the 5 people equally divide the price of the 5-ticket block?
A. $ 1.50
B. $ 2.50
C. $ 3.13
D. $10.00
E. $12.50
JUNIORS: Scan for a free ACT voucher on SchooLinks
3D MODELING
BY CLAIRE ZHANG staffer
“Another big challenge I approached was trying to make shapes that were proportionally accurate,”
Students in Calculus 3 recreate real-life objects for their 3D modeling project
CALCULUS III STUDENTS
expand their knowledge of calculus by exploring shapes in the third dimension. As part of a 3D modeling project, students were tasked with recreating real-life objects using GeoGebra, an online math software.
“One of the really big barriers of Calculus III is that we’re thinking in three dimensions,” math teacher Casie Sambo said. “Even though our world is in three dimensions, our math experience is usually in two dimensions. That can be a really difficult transition to go from visualizing something on paper to visualizing what that would look like in the real world.”
The project was divided into three parts. For the first two assignments, students were given specific objects to recreate, and for the third part, they chose their own objects. The objective of the project was for students to use mathematical
equations to construct graphical representations of their 3D objects.
“For my project, I [did] a Henry Rose perfume bottle,” Calculus III student Hotaru Murashita (11) said. “Some challenges I encountered were trying to find equations that would match the irregular shape [of the bottle] and getting the equations to display accurately in GeoGebra. I was getting a lot of coding errors.”
Aside from math, the project helps students develop valuable life skills. Students may not directly apply the calculus concepts learned in class to their daily lives, but the project encourages them to problemsolve through complex situations.
“There’s a lot of value in having to navigate unfamiliar situations,” Sambo said. “That creates a need for perseverance and a bit of healthy frustration that is really valuable in terms of what you bring out of school into the real world.” P
LEFT: Hotaru Murashita (11) works on her 3D modeling project. She recreated a Henry Rose perfume bottle for the project.
Murashita said. (photo by Sarmistha Pulagam)
Keegan Cody (12) and Aronno Dutta (12) measure the height of the Barbie doll for their Barbie bungee jump project in AP Statistics. Students made a line of best fit to predict the number of rubber bands needed for the Barbie doll to drop from the main stairwell without touching the ground. “The purpose of this project is to apply linear regression to real life [by] predicting how many rubber bands it would take to hold the Barbie for a bungee jump,” AP Statistics student Glen Widjaja (12) said. (photo by Frank Chen)
WHAT’S GOING ON IN YOUR MATH
CLASS?
“DARCY GRAFTENREED (11)
“I’m taking Pre-Calculus. We have an upcoming test on quadratic functions and the different forms, like standard and vertex form.”
MATH MADNESS
“ KAI CHEN (11)
“I’m taking Calculus III this year. So far, it hasn’t been that bad. We just finished our unit on 3D shapes and vectors, and in class we learned about vector functions.”
“
OLIVIA BERGER (10)
“I’m in Geometry. Right now, we’re working on our city map project including all the streets of St. Louis where we draw them in parallel and transversal lines.”
Every Thursday after school, the math club meets in room 3346, where they begin their meeting by competing in Math Madness, an online math competition where the team competes with other schools in bracket play.
“The Math Madness competition is a competition that Math Club has been participating in for a long time,” copresident Aiden Qian (12) said. “But I think this year it’s gotten more popular since we’ve pushed it out through our social media account.”
LEFT: Jason Shi (12) and Aiden Qian (12) solve a math problem on the table. Math Club competed in Math Madness Oct. 24 against ‘Iolani School and captured the win in the tiebreaker round. “Our goal for the competition is to have fun and learn math,” Qian said. (photo by Vincent Hsiao)
BY THE NUMBERS
Students vote on their preferences and favorites inside and out of the school curriculum
EVERYDAY FIGURES
ILLUSTRATION BY FIONA VAN ALLEN art editior-in-chief
Students’ favorites and statistics on various everyday topics of students say their favorite season is autumn
42% of students spend the most of their money on food of students don’t drink coffee before school
students have stickers decorating their laptop of students’ most used streaming platform is Netflix
57% of students prefer to use an Owala water bottle
1in4
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Ladue’s favorite school activities and extracurriculars
Panorama surveyed 183 students Oct. 27 & 212 students Oct. 28
of students chose a football game as their favorite school sporting event
INTHECLASSROOM
The amount
clubs students are a part of
ART BY THE EQUATION
Samuel Zhang (10) uses Desmos as a canvas for creative expression
L
LIT BY THE GLOW OF A COMputer screen, Samuel Zhang (10) scrolls through lines of equations that ripple into colors and shapes. What began as an online graphing calculator has become his digital canvas, where parabolas paint and coordinates compose. Originally launched in 2011 to help students plot math equations, Desmos has since been reimagined as a platform for digital art projects.
Zhang discovered his passion for Desmos art almost by accident. A moment of curiosity turned into something much bigger. The small Desmos experiment soon became an innovate obsession for Zhang.
“It started because I saw a video, and I decided to copy off the equations,” Zhang said. “Then, slowly after that, I kind of just found my own equations to work with.”
His first piece was just a few words forming a playful phrase, but that small start sparked something deeper. What began as imitation became exploration as Zhang learned to design art from scratch. Now, his creations range from geometric abstractions to intricate digital artworks, each one beginning with curiosity, unexpected equations and an unknown result.
“Sometimes it’s from when I’m messing around on Desmos,” Zhang said. “I’ll find an interesting shape, and I can base the rest of the artwork on that shape.”
As his ideas have grown, so has his patience. Behind every finished image is a long process of trial and error where precision is just as important as inspiration.
BY REVATHY CHADALAVADA staff
“Usually it takes a few hours on and off, over a week or a few weeks,” Zhang said. “Some shapes are difficult to make with mathematical equations. So it either has to be split up into multiple [equations] or I just have to keep working on it.”
Creating art on Desmos is like designing with numbers instead of pixels. Artists layer curves, adjust sliders and combine functions until equations take form.
“One of the most important tools is the list,” Zhang said. “It allows me to shade, because otherwise I’d have to repeat functions over and over again.”
Every new graph for Zhang begins as a mathmatical experiment, a question that leads to valuable discoveries. Zhang viewshis mistakes not as failures, but as stepping stones to bigger and better ideas.
“I try to work through it,” Zhang said. “If there’s something I can’t figure out, I’ll either keep experimenting or move on to something new.”
Through practice, Zhang has learned that math and creativity are deeply connected. Trigonometry provides the structure behind the smooth curves and symmetry, while color transforms formulas into profound feelings and expressions.
“I want people to be impressed, so I want the lighting to be dramatic,” Zhang said.
Today, that connection is reaching far beyond his own screen. Desmos hosts math art exhibitions and competitions celebrating artistic mathematicians nationwide.
“[People] are quite impressed because it’s a graphing calculator that most people just use to help them in Algebra II or Pre-Calculus [class],” Zhang said. “No one really goes too far into making games or full pieces of artwork like [me].
Each function Zhang plots on Desmos reveals something larger: that creativity and calculation can work together to express new meaning. In his art, math is not only logical but also deeply human.
“Math itself is an artistic language if you’re far enough into [it],” Zhang said.
Samuel Zhang (10) creates art with Desmos 1
1
2
3
4 P
Zhang used a polygon for the background because it was faster than using equations to fill the screen.
He made the wings by mixing equations and lists together.
The gradient on the eye came from another equation Zhang found that made a water ripple effect.
He used circle and square equations, then made adjustments and a list to create his “Heavenly Being.”
SUMMER SOLVED
BY ADELA GINGRICH math editor
Jason Shi (12) and Alex Wang (12) attend summer math camps
FAR OUT WEST from St. Louis, across to the coast of California, Jason Shi (12) attends three-hourlong lectures, ponders over difficult problem sets and constructs informative research projects. Over his summer break, Shi attended Stanford University Math Camp, a four-week residential program. Shi was specifically selected for program II, studying algebraic topology.
One of the camp’s main activities was completing a partner research project. Every Friday, Shi and his partner worked on their research, which was on Topological Games and the Baire Category Theorem.
“We had to study various graduate-level math textbooks,” Shi said. “We presented our findings to the rest of the program at the end of the summer.”
MOST
STUDEnts over the summer were stuck completing math homework required by their classes. On the other hand, Alex Wang (12) was on the other side of the globe solving tough problem sets, attending three lectures a day and meeting other math-enthusiasts from across the world. During summer break, Wang attended Yau Mathcamp in Shanghai, China for four weeks, held at the Shanghai Institute for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences.
“Although it is around nine hours of math every weekday, it never felt that long," Wang said. “Especially because I was working and collaborating with friends and I enjoy doing math in general.”
One of Wang’s greatest highlights from the camp was getting to conduct a partner research project on Shor’s Algorithm, which is used for quantum computing.
“We ended up being the third best presentation in that class,” Wang said. “But I
To Shi, who has always had a strong passion for math, the camp provided him with an outlet to explore the subject while creating his own independent work in a newer, more challenging environment.
“This program was the perfect opportunity to further my interest by pursuing higher-level math with other high schoolers just as passionate as I was,” Shi said.
Aside from learning in the classroom and working independently, Shi gained even more from the experience by befriending mathematicians from across the globe and engaging in the fun activities Stanford’s campus had to o"er.
“I became friends with people from places ranging from China to Brazil to Turkey,” Shi said. “We enjoyed playing ultimate frisbee, the card game SET and going to Decadence with friends to get the best ice cream I’ve ever had.”
RELEARNING NUMBERS
Math teachers demonstrate their subject from a new perspective
BY RYAN RZESZUTKO guest columnist
NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU are at math, there’s always a level beyond your skillset that will humble you.
was more so proud of our hard work and ability to complete the project in general.”
To Wang, one of the most important things he gained from the experience was the connections and friendships he made, whether it was through mathematical research, group card game sessions after lunch or late-night hotel room movies.
“The students there were undoubtedly some of the smartest people I’ve met and what’s even cooler is that they came from all around the world,” Wang said. “Seeing their passion, goals and work ethic has really been crucial in motivating myself to do better, too.”
Wang attended Yau Mathcamp for a variety of reasons, including his general interest in math and his desire to study abroad. However, one of the greatest factors that pulled Wang was its ability to mimic a pre-college experience.
“It was kind of like a sneak peek into college life where most of my studies would be centered around math and I would spend most of my time around people that shared my interests,” Wang said.
CURIOUS?
Scan for the full version
I found that out firsthand during the spring of my freshman year of college in Calculus III. In high school, I was among the best math students in the building. I did all of my assignments, but didn’t need to study much, and never really felt stressed by math. I took that same approach in college, and received a D on my first test.
BY MICHEAL FARRELL guest columnist
WE ALL HAVE THAT THING.
The subject that makes our eyes light up, the hobby we can talk about for hours, the niche interest that others might call “obsessive.” I call it “geeking out.”
CURIOUS?
Scan for the full version
I want you to realize this: when you genuinely geek out about anything — music, art, gaming, sports, fashion, historical trivia — you are finding your inner mathematician. You are engaging with the world using the very same sophisticated tools of analysis, pattern-seeking and structure that defines mathematics.
ELISA CORMIER AND ADELA GINGRICH
SPREAD DESIGN BY
LADUE IN FOCUS
Students share their thoughts and experiences with AI chatbots
DO YOU LIKE HOW THE SCHOOL HAS HANDLED AI?
“I
DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR LADUE’S AI POLICY?
