| Science team places in science competition (5/09) | | Print | |
| Written by Jessica Cheung | |
| Saturday, 23 May 2009 | |
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A science team consisting of five seniors from the school took third place at an annual environmental competition held on April 29-31. Science teachers James Carmack and Kathy Melvin supervised and counseled the Serpentines, a team composed of Advanced Placement Environmental Science students Jason Lo, staff reporter Karyn Smoot, physics students Ravi Patel, Jasper Wu and Advanced Placement Biology student Alice Zhou. The team competed with 15 other schools across the state. Although the competition, sponsored by Canon Envirothon, has occurred annually for the past 17 years, this is the first year the school has participated. “Since it was our first-time competition, we had no idea what it would look like,” Melvin said. “Our only sources came mainly from online, which consisted of extensive information.” The Serpentines went head-to-head with students who had the advantage of takin classes specializing in preparation for the contest. “A lot of the schools within the competition had periods or classes designated for Envirothon training,” Melvin said. The competition has a different theme every year. This year’s theme was “Biodiversity in a Changing World,” with five biology disciplines — wildlife, aquatics, forestry, soils and current issues. During the competition, each team was given approximately 35-45 minutes to complete an eight-page packet of fill-in-the-blanks and short answers. According to Melvin, this required teams to retrieve information from their surroundings, such as river oxygen levels, tree height and identifying animal skulls. In addition to the packets, the teams also gave an oral presentation on a given hypothetical conflict: to mitigate any issues or conflicts between environmentalists and developers with aims to urbanize an area. The team experienced several setbacks before the competition even started. “Getting the school district to agree to overnight trips was tough,” Melvin said. The Serpentines also faced tough competition, such as the reigning competitors Arlington High School, according to Lo. “We didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “We just had to take it all into stride and hope for the best.” Although Arlington was announced the winner of 2009 California Envirothon, the fact that the Serpentines placed third was a significant accomplishment because it was their first effort. “I thought the experience was very insightful and fun,” Wu said. “It was an excellent opportunity to apply what I learned in AP Environmental Science.” The teacher supervisors were satisfied with the team’s work. “I’m extremely proud of the students,” Melvin said. “They had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They did a great job.” Share this article:           |
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