Chemistry Olympiad:
On March 7th and 8th, 102 students from San Diego area high schools participated in the local screening for the International Chemistry Olympiad. Eleven of the top-scoring students on the local exam returned to take the National exam given for the International Chemistry Olympiad on April 26th. One student, Mr. Matthew Voss from Canyon Crest Academy received High Honors for placing in the top 50 across the country. Five students received Honors for placing in the top 150 – Mr. Henry Bradlow from Westview High School, Mr. Eric Guan and Mr. Christopher Wu from Torrey Pines High School, Ms. Julia Pian from The Bishop’s School and Mr. Perren Yang from Canyon Crest Academy. Mr. Alex Chang, a Senior at Torrey Pines High School, placed in the top 20 across the country and has been invited to participate in the study camp from which the top 4 students will be chosen as the members of the 2009 U.S. Chemistry Olympiad team! Mr. Chang also participated in the study camp in 2008.
High School Contest:
On May 9th, the San Diego Section of the American Chemical Society held its 28th Annual High School Chemistry Contest at the University of San Diego. Local schools sent four person teams to participate in the first and/or second year divisions. A total of 70 students worked in pairs on an open-ended laboratory problem that required them to design their own experiments to test hypotheses. The students and teachers then enjoyed a brief talk presented by Ms. April Stanley, an undergraduate student at USD who described her current research project and spoke in general about the importance of undergraduate research. Everyone then had a great pizza lunch. The results of the contest are:
The top pair performances were:
|
|
DIVISION I (School) |
DIVISION II (School) |
|
1st Place |
Gaia Croston and Olivia Field Francis Parker High School |
Steven Fowler and Kyle Hoffer Scripps Ranch High School |
|
2nd Place |
Kevin Hsieh and Erin Quick Rancho Bernardo High School |
Alekhya Adipudi and Christopher Case Rancho Bernardo High School |
|
3rd Place |
Alexis DeStasio and Ian Fong La Jolla High School |
Rui Jin and Leo Zhou Scripps Ranch High School |
The top team performances were:
|
|
DIVISION I |
DIVISION II |
|
1st Place |
Rancho Bernardo High School |
Scripps Ranch High School |
|
2nd Place |
La Jolla High School |
Rancho Bernardo High School |
|
3rd Place |
St. Augustine High School |
Torrey Pines High School |
The first place pairs had the opportunity to explain their experimental procedure and the results that they obtained at the education banquet held at the end of May.
2009 Outstanding High School Teacher:
The Education Committee selected a recipient of the 2009 Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher Award: Mr. William Goss of The Bishop’s School.
Mr. Goss has been teaching chemistry, AP chemistry and ballroom dancing at The Bishop’s School since 1989. He is the past recipient of several teaching awards from The Bishop’s School. His peers describe him as an exceptionally successful and inspirational mentor to his students. While students find his classes quite challenging, he is often described as “the best teacher I ever had” by those same students. The ACS is pleased to have honored and recognized such a wonderful teacher in our community.
At the Education Banquet, Ms. Pian, a student of Mr. Goss, accepted the award for Mr. Goss who was unable to attend the event. The award consisted of a plaque, $1,000 for himself and $250 for The Bishop’s School.
2009 Education Committee Awards Banquet
On Saturday, May 30th, we recognized the awardees from the Chemistry Olympiad, the High School Chemistry Competition and our Outstanding High School Teacher in a dinner held in the atrium of the Shiley Center for Science and Technology on the campus of the University of San Diego. The event drew a crowd that included students, their families, and members of the executive board of the Local Section. The awards were presented after dinner and the attendees enjoyed a great presentation by Dr. Jack Johnson from The Scripps Research Institute. He described his personal journey into science and how he got interested and involved in the particular research topics that he works on today. He then discussed his interesting work in structural virology, in particular the interesting structure of Bacteriophage HK97. The evening was a great success and the students, teachers and parents all enjoyed the event.
Jeff Bush (Rancho Bernardo H.S.) speaking to students and parents
Jack Johnson, TSRI (Guest Speaker)
Debbie Tahmassebi; Alex Chang, Torrey Pines High School
Hui Cai (front left) and Alex Chang (front right)
Debbie Tahmassebi; Matthew Voss, Canyon Crest Academy
Julia Pian, The Bishop’s School