NEWS                                                                                   Walnut Valley Unified School District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                  880 S. Lemon Avenue

March 9, 2015                                                                      Walnut, CA 91789

Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources

(909) 595-1261 ext. 31204

WALNUT, CA-- Walnut Valley schools continued their record of exemplary performance during the L.A. County Science Olympiad held at Occidental College on February 28.

Walnut High scored 2nd place and Diamond Bar High earned 3rd place out of 40 participating high school teams.

“These students worked very hard with a dedication that went far beyond expectations,” said Tony Goossens, teacher advisor for the WHS team. “They really represent some of the best minds in the State.”

There were 140 elementary and secondary schools that participated in the all-day science event.

Forty teams competed in the middle school division. Suzanne took 3rd place, Chaparral – 4th place, and South Pointe – 5th place.

“What made this year’s 3rd place win even more special was that it was truly a team effort,” said Suzanne science teacher advisor Susan Warren. “Every member of this amazing team brought home an individual medal for at least one of the 23 events.”

These five middle and high school teams will now advance to the state competition on April 4 at Canyon High School in Anaheim.

Several elementary schools competed among 60 teams in the Division A tournament, many for the first time. The Westhoff team won a Gold medal; Vejar, Quail Summit, Castle Rock, and Evergreen brought home Silver medals. Elementary teams do not compete at the state level.

Most students worked in teams of two to prepare for the 23 events in the categories of Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, Physics, Technology, Engineering, and Inquiry.

Only 15 members were allowed to compete per school, therefore most students prepared for three or more events. Some teams focused on anatomy, meteorology, fossils, the solar system and entomology. Some teams designed and built elastic launch gliders, bottle rockets, air trajectory devices, robots, bridges and wheeled vehicles. There were events that required hands-on lab skills, such as “Bio-Process Lab,” “Can’t Judge a Powder,” “Crime Busters” and “Experimental Design.

For the engineering events, students made machines that flew in the air, shot balls, dropped weights from a height, and performed energy transfers.

Competitors built a tiny bridge strong enough to support a huge weight of sand, and a vehicle that drove an egg as close to a wall as possible without breaking the egg.

“They did a fantastic job and are ready to take on their next big hurdle, the state championship! We are truly proud of what they have accomplished and the amount of time and hard work they put forth for their events,” said South Pointe science teacher and advisor Crystal Dira.

Science Olympiad teams are championed by families who devote their time and resources in support of students.

“I think the kids did a fantastic job. They learned while having fun. It was great!” said Quail Summit parent Suzanne Zhang.

“I am so proud of this group of talented young scientists who were willing to take risks and pursue advanced studies. They will be competing for their personal best at the upcoming state competition,” Warren added.

Congratulations to our Walnut Valley Science Olympiad winners!

Walnut High team members are: Allison Tang, Brian Sonner, Jeffrey Zhang, Jonathan Ong-Siong, Ted Zhu, William Sheu, Maxwell Zhu, Caroline Huang, Ayesha Ng, Alice Mo, Kelly Huang, Sophia Ding, Angel Wong, Adam Ng, and Ella Wang.

Diamond Bar High team members are: Pablo Martinez, Nicole Matsuda, Athena Chen, Forest Hu, Jennifer Wu, Niraj Ganesh, Adele Zhang, Isabel Jiang, Jeannie Huang, Brian Ho, Mandy Hung, Benjamin Chen, Elaine Yip, Jeff Chow, and Miriam Sun.

Suzanne team members are: Susanne Middle School’s Regional team consisted of fifteen students: Yi Chien, Patrick Florendo, David Hou, Alana Huitric, Kevin Jensen, Daniel Knott, Annie Li, Joanna Li, Ethan Lin, Amy Lo, Patrick Song Martinez, Evelyn Pan, Felianne Teng, Ryan Tsen, and Sylvester Yue.

Chaparral team members are: Megan Chow, Joseph Dong, Jeremy Gan, Kevin Guan, Jenny Ji, Vivek Kandhari, Jennifer Lee, Christopher Lee, Johanna Liang, Gordon Lin, Sean Lin (Team Captain), Keshav Sriram, Alicia Wang, Simon Wang, and Hannah Zhang.

South Pointe team members are Luke Zhao, Tiffany Chang, Ryan Lou, Tom Murickan, Karen Shao, Rebecca Leung, Jay Siri, Maxwell Tsao, Suman Guntapalli, Parker Chu, Daniel Huang, Perry Wang, Richard Zhao, Darren Chiu, and Megan Yang.

Westhoff: Eric Djajadi, Annabelle Chan, Alice Chou, Eric Wang, Austin Yang, Grant Li, Allison Lin, Deven Tseng, Annita Wu, Kevin Zeng, Rowena Wong, Bruce Ho, Ella Lin, Lina Huang, Andrea Florendo,

Vejar: Emily Cao, Brain Feng, Roselyn Leung, Yuning (Allen) Sun, James Huang, Frank Tan, Glory Zhang, Lewis Lui, Lelana McWilliams, Matthew Tseng, Siarra Huang, Sharon Wang,

Quail Summit: Nathan Chun, Jesse Dong, Jackson Haynes, Brian Hsu, Ryan Le, Lewis Weng, Michael Pribadi, Purav Shah, Michael Shen, Ethan Yang, Jaden Zhang, Bobby Zhu, Melody Mao, Bing Wi, and Eric Hwang.

Castle Rock: Chris Hsieh, Celine Chao, Reese wang, Isabella lee, Elvis Lin, Roy Lin, Annie Chen, Jill L, Kyra Chung. Jeremy Wang, Charleen Chen, Audwin Chang, Jeffrey Wang,
and Maggie Cheung.

Evergreen: Justin Lou, Isabella Wang, Alfred Wang, Joshua Hardley, Justin Song, Daniel Lee, and Nathan Lee.

Chaparral students Jeremy Gan and Hannah Zhang prepared for the Bottle Rocket event. 

The Chaparral Middle School team took 4th place. Members show medals earned at the L.A. County Science Olympiad competition. Shown with advisor Bob Patterson. 

Diamond Bar High School placed 3rd at the Science Olympiad.