S P O T L I G H T
in Connecticut by the University of New Haven. Our state has the largest participation of any; nearly eighty schools appear in a given year. This event is truly a team competition. Faced with a general problem that cuts across the science disciplines, each team must exhibit expertise in physics, chemistry, engineering, environmental science, and computer programming. The exam allows each team to allocate its members in any fashion to answer a series of linked questions. Taft has had extraordinary success at this competition in the past. Jim Mooney’s teams have placed in the top few spots every year they have competed. In 1993, a team consisting of Laura Estes ’93, Jonathan Griswold ’94, Ken Kharma ’93, and Jack Langsdorf ’93 placed first in Connecticut and then went on to the national competition, where they placed third in the selective-schools category. This year, the Taft banner will be carried to New Haven by seniors Jessica Riggs, Rich Possemato, Rob Percarpio, Will Morris, Bri Mahoney, and Owen Muir and upper mids Tony Guerrera and Dan Chak. The Chemathon, sponsored by the New England Association of Chemistr y Teachers and Sacred Heart University, invites each secondary school in the state of Connecticut to send its five best first-year chemists to sit for a two-hour examination in May. Taft teams have dominated the independentschool category of this competition, and several students have placed among the top few spots among several hundred competitors. Chris Krenn ’88, Jennifer Ottman ’91, and James Thompson ’89 placed third overall in their respective competitions, and last year Rich Possemato was second in the state.
Engineering competitions The National Engineering Design Competition is a high-school engineering-based program in which teams of students design, fabricate, and dem-
Ken Kharma and Chris Pollock, both Class of ’93, perform “Chemical Magic” for local elementary school students as part of an Independent Studies Project. onstrate solutions to a defined problem. The NEDC challenges students to apply mathematics, science, and technology to a real-world engineering situation, and the founders of the event have posed fascinating problems each year. In 1994, students constructed a device to help a paraplegic show materials on an overhead projector; the mechanism was required to pick up transparencies from a low pile and deliver them to and from the display panel without any assistance from the presenter. In 1995, the team designed an apparatus to deliver medicines to an elderly person at appropriate times over an interval of a week, with warnings suitable to people who might have been hearing- or sight-impaired. This year, two Taft
teams met the challenge of designing and constructing a fitness device that would allow exercise of arms, legs, and torso of users including paraplegics and pregnant women. One Taft team placed second in the competition and received a special award for best working model. This device was displayed by seniors Jennifer Blomberg, Graham Elliott, Owen Muir, and Jessica Riggs. The “Peak Performance” competition is sponsored by the College of Engineering at Boston University. It involves teams of two students who design and build a vehicle that will climb a sloped ramp under its own power, stop at a plateau at the top of the ramp, and defend its position against a vehicle from another team that has climbed a ramp on the opposite side of the plateau. Taft Bulletin
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