FALL 2017 UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY

Page 64

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The World of STEAM Cont. from page 61

USC students successfully competed in the local South Hills tournament in May at West Jefferson Hills School District. Sixth graders Keshav Narasimhan and Carter McClintock-Comeaux finished first and second, respectively, in their grade level. In addition to Keshave and Carter, the following Boyce students participated in the math competition: Libby Eannarino, Peter Engel, Shubham Patel, Aniketh Vivekenandan, and Garrett Ziegler from fifth grade; and David Goldberg and Alex Todd from sixth grade. Boyce conducted preliminary rounds in all 24 homerooms. Each homeroom sent a “champion” to the all-school competition where the top competitors in both fifth and sixth grades were determined.

USC Hosts Women in STEAM

PML Contest

Nearly 30 USCHS students and seven professionals participated in the school’s inaugural Women in STEAM event this past April. The event, organized by science teacher Douglas Petrick, was designed to provide increased awareness to female students about career opportunities in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The Women in STEAM event featured three components: the speakers presented a short five- to ten-minute informal talk about their journey from the high school level to where they are today, rotating round table discussions that provided opportunities for small group interaction and an informal luncheon. “Upper St. Clair School District is constantly searching for ways to inspire students,” said Douglas. “The purpose of the event was to inspire students with the stories of each Woman in STEAM’s personal journey.” The panel of speakers encompassed a wide-range of experiences and career positions. Each speaker had a different journey, which resonated with students. Douglas said, “Students were excited to hear similarities between the speakers and themselves. They enjoyed hearing about the diverse backgrounds of each of our seven speakers and were inspired by similarities between the speakers’ paths and their own.” Students indicated that it was helpful to know that not every speaker knew during their high school and early undergraduate schooling where their career trajectory would take them. “Students were surprised to hear the differences in each speaker’s journey—while some of the speakers knew from an early age that they wanted to pursue a STEAM career, others did not,” said Douglas. “Some of the speakers had people of influence along the way who encouraged them. No matter what the experience, each speaker had a similar theme of learning by doing, trying something they were passionate about, and not letting someone else’s preconceived notions deter them from their goals.” Douglas believes opportunities such as the Women in STEAM event, which enable students to hear and learn from role models within different careers and industries, are important for the future workforce. “Everyone finds inspiration in different places, and this event served as a jumping off point for that journey,” he said. “This event allowed female students the opportunity to ‘see it to be it.’ ” In addition to Douglas, the event was supported by Lynn Kistler, USCHS science teacher and curriculum leader, and Dr. Tim Wagner, USCHS associate principal for program planning and innovation. Additionally, Petrinis Promos donated portfolios and pens to the event that the students and speakers used to take notes and Wiley Publishing donated funds to help defray the cost of lunch. n

Shiven Verma recently earned the top score among 80 Boyce Middle School students participating in the Pennsylvania Mathematics League competition. The mathematics competition was open to all USC fifth graders and consisted of Left to right: Emily Wetterau, Roshan Segall, Marco Carone, Shiven Verma, a 30-question test of nonteacher Kathy Hoedeman, Rachel routine problems. Thomas, Ben Leggat Two students—Marco Corone and Rachel Thomas—tied for second place. In a threeway tie for third place were Roshan Segall, Ben Leggat, and Emily Wetterau. Honorable mention went to Jacob Artnak, Tanav Dandekar, Kate Falce, Matthew Fibbi, Leo Masse, Sreeja Meda, Luke Ralyea, Daniel Seewald, Lauren Teeney, and Ananya Tripathi. Boyce’s math contest is organized and administered by math resource teacher Kathy Hoedeman and gifted coordinator Sue Fleckenstein. Math Olympiad A team of Boyce Middle School students was named to the National Math Olympiad Honor Roll for scoring in the top ten percent among 3154 teams from 44 countries in the international Mathematical Olympiads for Elementary and Middle School program. Phillip Markovitz was one of only 71 sixth graders out of 77,774 students in his division to earn the Dr. George Lenchner Medallion, in recognition for achieving a perfect score. Winners of the Gold Pin for scoring in the top two percent of all registered students were sixth graders Phillip Markovitz, Alex Todd, Ben Wasson, Quinton Miller, Keshav Narasimhan, and Evan Sarkett, as well as fifth graders Brian McFerran, Lucas Bishop, and Leona Chen. Silver pins were awarded to 15 Boyce students who scored among the top ten percent, including sixth graders Rebecca Lang, Carter McClintock-Comeaux, Sahil Bhalodia, Maya Leyzarovich, John Scherer, Jasmine Dietiker, Carter Chui, Matthew Earley, Colin Liang, and Mariah Ranier, as well as fifth graders Libby Eannarino, Alex Sun, Mahir Parmar, and Arya Patel. The students participated in a series of five monthly contests of five problems each from November through March as well as weekly practice sessions under the supervision and coaching of math resource teacher Kathy Hoedeman. 62

UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY

Fall 2017

Small group discussions during the Women in STEAM event


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