NEWS Walnut Valley Unified School District
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 880 S. Lemon Avenue
April 8, 2014 Walnut, CA 91789
Contact:
Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources
(909)595-1261 ext. 31204
Walnut High Science Olympians Earn 1st State Trophy
WALNUT, CA--The Walnut High School Science Olympiad team placed 6th in the state competition on April 5.
Thirty teams qualified for the Southern California Science Olympiad held at Canyon High School in Anaheim.
This highly competitive event was close, with a small difference between the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6thplaces.
Congratulations to the WHS team for their best finish ever and for being the first WVUSD team to earn a state Science Olympiad trophy!
The team earned medals in 12 events at the contest held at Canyon High School in Anaheim.
1st Place: Chemistry Lab – Ted Zhu and Allison Tang; Material Science – Vincent Liu and Jefferey Zhang; Elastic Launch Glider – Ted Zhu and Jonathan Ong-Siong; Bungee Drop – Jonathan Ong-Siong and Brian Sonner.
2nd Place: Mag Lev – Ming Hsieh and Jefferey Zhang; Air Rocket Trajectory – Dalton Trinh and Ella Wang; Hydrogeology – Alice Mo and Sophia Ding.
3rd Place: Technical Problem Solving – Andy Tsaiand Allison Tang; Boomilever – Ted Zhu and Jonathan Ong-Siong.
6th Place: Anatomy – Brian Sonner and Anthony Zhang; Compound Machines – Andy Tsai and Bob Feng; Designer Genes – Vincent Liuand Ted Zhu. Additional team members who contributed to the success at the state competition were: James Li, Rachel Wang, Joy Cai, Joe Li, and William Sheu.
“Our students have worked incredibly hard all year.They started studying last September and did not stop until the actual tests started,” said Tony Goossens, advisor and science teacher.
“Many of the events were in subject areas we do not have at the high school level. Subjects like entomology, engineering, designer genes, astronomy, etc. are unique and require students to become experts with little or no help.”
The Diamond Bar High School team placed 15th overall and medaled with a 2nd Place award in Boomilever and 3rd place in the Bungee Drop events.
The District’s three middle schools also qualified and competed in the state competition. The South Pointe team won 10th Place, Suzanne took 16th Place and Chaparral finished in 19th Place.
The all-day competition with 30 teams included 22 events in which students competed in engineering and study tests. South Pointe placed Top 10 in 12 of the 22 events. With 1st Place wins in Disease Detectives - William Shao and Austin Sun; and Dynamic Planet - Patrick Cai & Alvin Lee.
“I am very proud of this year’s team. They have been working hard all year long to compete at this level. They are very responsible students and often have to put in a lot of extra time outside of school in order to do so well in the competitions. We were very lucky this year to have a lot of extra help from parents, along with coaches, Mrs. Crystal Dira, Mrs. Megan Kojder, and Jason Theophilus. It has been a great year,” said science teacher Kellie Muragishi.
Shown:
The Walnut High School Science Olympiad Team brought home the District’s first state trophy at the Southern California Science Olympiad held on April 5.