NEWS                                                                                    Walnut Valley Unified School District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                             880 S. Lemon Avenue

April 19, 2013                                                                       Walnut, CA 91789

 

Contact:       

Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources

(909) 595-1261 ext. 31204

WALNUT, CA—Three Walnut Valley Schools qualified to compete in the state-level Science Olympiad competition during the regional contest held in February.

The state level tournament was held on April 6 at Canyon High School in Anaheim.

Suzanne Middle School students medaled in seven different events.

“I am very proud of my team. Although we are not advancing to the national level, these students worked so hard and represented proudly represented Walnut Valley,” said Science teacher and advisor Susan Warren.

This dedicated team of students competed against 24 other schools that had advanced from regional competitions in their counties, Warren said.

Suzanne’s Science Olympiad team members are Mike Bao, Lydia Chen, Michael Ding, Sophia Ding, David Hou, Caroline Huang, Joanna Li, Ethan Lin, Matthew Lutz-Paap, Ayesha Ng, Martin Nguyen, Felianne Teng, Lena Tring, Kyle Truong, Ryan Tsen, and Christopher Wong, alternate. 

These students worked in teams of two to prepare for 25 events.  Most students belonged to three or four teams.  Some teams were focused on topics of anatomy, heredity, forestry, rocks/minerals, water quality, and meteorology.  Other teams pursued engineering and created helicopters, a mousetrap vehicle, a cantilever, and musical instruments.

Suzanne students won individual event team medals in seven events:

Ethan Lin and Matthew Lutz-Paap – 2nd Place in Metric Mastery; Christopher Wong and Ayesha Ng – 2nd Place in Invasive Species; Ethan Lin and Ryan Tsen -  2nd Place in Boomilever: Sophia Ding and Mike Bao  - 4th Place in Keep the Heat;  Joanna Li and Felianne Teng – 5th Place in Meteorology; Lena Trinh and Lydia Chan – 5th Place in Rocks and Minerals; Mike Bao and Michael Ding – 5th Place in Shock Value.

“State competition was a culmination of a year’s worth of dedication, discipline and discovery,” Warren said.

“How wonderful it has been to see a group of students working together as a team, and being excited about learning advanced concepts in the diverse disciplines of science.  I’m sure that any future study of science that these students will pursue will be augmented by their experience at the Science Olympiad.”

South Pointe Middle School students place in the Top 10 in nine of the 23 events. Leslie Sim and Patrick Cai took 2nd Place awards in Anatomy, and Austin Sun and Megan Yang won 3rd Place in Disease Detectives.  

“South Pointe ranked 14th in the State and we are so proud of our team.  They worked really hard,” said Science teacher and advisor Chrystal Dira.

“We accomplished our goals this year and made it to state.  We look forward to next year!” Dira said.

Walnut High School placed 12th in the State, said Science teacher and advisor Tony Goossens.

Congratulations to the following students who medaled at the state competition:

Ted Zhu - 3rd Place in Forestry, 3rd Place in Boomilever, and 3rd Place in Elastic launch glider; Alan Chen - 3rd Place in Elastic launch glider, 3rd Place in Boomilever; Brian Sonner - 3rd Place in Forestry; Misha Stouklov - 3rd Place in Thermodynamics; Jeffery Zhang - 3rd Place in Thermodynamics; Lynne Ji - 4th Place in Write it do it; Angel Wong - 4th Place in Write it do it.

“Unfortunately we had some technical problems with our equipment or we would have been in the Top Ten. We will get there next time!” he said.

“If it wasn’t for the support of parents like Mr. & Mrs. Sonner and Dr. Stouklov, we would not be where we are today,” Goosens said.

Suzanne students Lydia Chan, Felianne Teng, Joanna Li and Lena Trinh celebrate their great accomplishments at state competition in the events of Meteorology and Rocks and Minerals. 

Suzanne teammates 6th grader Ethan Lin and 8th grader Mathew Lutz-Papp put the finishing touches on their “Mission Possible” creation.  These two Olympiads also competed Metric Mastery and took home second place medals in that event. 

Suzanne eighth graders, Sophia Ding and Ayesha Ng prepare for their upcoming event.  These dedicated young women competed together in both Food Science and Water Quality events.  They were also members of teams for Keep the Heat, Invasive Species, and Heredity. 

Ethan Lin and Ryan Tsen astounded the crowd as their award-winning Boomilever structure holds almost the entire container of sand.   Ryan also participated in Write It/Do It, Rotor Egg Drop and Sounds of Music.  Ethan also participated in Mission Impossible, Green Generation and medaled in Metric Mastery. 

Suzanne was able to compete in an additional Geocache event.  Here Ryan Tsen, Lena Trinh, Ethan Lin and Kyle Truong check their GPS data in order to determine their next destination point. 

Suzanne’s Christopher Wong, and Ayesha Ng were able to participate in a new trial event entitled “Invasive Species.”  This pair had less than a month to prepare for this newly released event.  They received a 2nd place medal for their efforts. 

Fellow eighth-graders Ayesha Ng, Sophia Ding, Michael Ding and Mike Bao are ending their middle school education with their great success at the State Science Olympiad competition.