<p>Society</a> for Science & the Public - Intel STS - 2011 Finalists</p>
<p>40 finalists in total. Saw some familiar school names. :) Congrats, the winners from Andover, Chaote, Lawrenceville and Groton!</p>
<p>I always wanted to write a paper “On the Second Eigenvalue and Expansion of Bipartite Regular Graph.” Alas, some youngster beat me to it.</p>
<p>It is interesting that only NY State public schools have more finalists than all BS combined.</p>
<p>What, no Exeter?</p>
<p>pulsar, ask youself why. Let’s see if you can figure out a reasonable answer. If not now, I bet you will after you spend a few years in the boarding school. ;)</p>
<p><a href=“Ossining High School Leads Way in Science - The New York Times”>Ossining High School Leads Way in Science - The New York Times;
<p>Eureka, one possible reason may be there is more partying going on at BS while PS kids are busy doing science research.</p>
<p>pulsar, you tend to have dark negative views on boarding schools as a whole, but honestly I think you are no worse than those some adults included who’d unconditionally chant for the school they are asociated with, take pain (even go as far as muddle facts, and make up/cite questionable stats) to prove their school is the best, or fiercely defend any trivial criticism about their school. What I dont’ understand is why as a prospective BS student you like to inflict such negative thoughts on yourself and others, just as I don’t understand why some others are so addicted to spending most their time on CC just keeping the perfect picture of their school while sometimes they can actually focus on exchanging ideas on how to improve the BS experience to make it better.</p>
<p>DA, I do agree with your post. Beneath all the so called negative and positive thoughts, some information exchange is taking place. I know some parents act to bolster their schools at all costs. It’s not a perfect world. However, I do believe CC has been useful, otherwise we all won’t be here.</p>
<p>Harker - represent! Only school with 2 finalists. :]</p>
<p>These projects sound really interesting!</p>
<p>I would like to know if those winners in BS are day student or boarders. </p>
<p>My suspicious on all scientific competitions are how much parents are factored into them. As a former research scientist myself, I know the great deal of advantages a student can have with a “right” parent.</p>
<p>Math competition is more fair IMHO.</p>
<p>I have judged science competitions for several years. I was so proud to see the name of one of the students that I judged many years ago on this year’s list!</p>
<p>@FayMom. I agree that parents can provide too much help on projects at times, but that is usually obvious during the Q & A phase of competition that the student doesn’t own the work when they are unable to answer tough questions.</p>
<p>Students with the right mentor, tutor, or coach can do better than those without the same resources. IMO I think that occurs in every subject.</p>
<p>I agree with Faymom in that I believe boarding school students (boarders in particular) are not well positioned for being competitive in such competitions. Projects that could put a student to the top of a competition such as this take a great amount of time, energy and other resources including extensive support from parents or professional coaches for years in the student’s own time. The setup of the boarding life at a boarding school, the rigorous school work and schedule all make it harder for BS students to stand out in such a competition. And that’s why we see so few of BS students in the finals list. Otherwise it just doesn’t make sense that such an intelligent and motivated student body when working with some of the best teachers in the nation and using state-of-the-art facilities couldn’t perform better.</p>
<p>I do believe that some boarding schools are well positioned in developing well-rounded and capable individuals. That, coupled with an Intel Science Talent Search award would be perfect, but at least I think I know why it’s not happening as much as expected.</p>
<p>@DAndrew I think most of the projects are done during the summer break.</p>
<p>MaterS, having had no direct experience, I can’t say you are wrong, but if that’s the case, why is the performce of BS students so poor compared with students from public schools and private day schools? As pulsar pointed out, “NY State public schools have more finalists than all BS combined.” The comparison may not be fair as the population base of NY state public schools may be a lot bigger than BS population all together (?), but in any case shouldn’t there be more BS students among the finalists, considering some of the BS are so selective.</p>
<p>It could merely be a question of structure of the school’s instruction. Not choosing to focus on creating competitors for the Intel Science competition is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps the schools focus more on preparing outstanding students for the national math, chemistry and physics teams, rather than requiring the teachers to oversee individual student science projects. </p>
<p>Have any applicants asked admissions officers about school support for Intel Science competitions?</p>
<p>[Number</a> of city kids applying and succeeding at prestigious Intel science competition hits all-time low - NYPOST.com](<a href=“http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/schools_big_drop_in_intel_obmo65bpROay0gkq0TCVFP]Number”>Schools down shocking 75% in sci competition)</p>
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<p>^^So you think the successes we see are still mainly due to the contestors schools’ support (focus and oversight etc.) instead of the external support students get from coaches and parents in some cases? MaterS seems to be suggesting that the research is mostly done in summer, which can be done without the school’s support. </p>
<p>I agree with you that the current performance of BS students in the Intel competition has at least something to do with their BS, whether its lack of support from the school or the setup and structure of the boarding life at BS. As for BS’s “focus”, I don’t think they have the Intel competition on their ‘agenda’. And as discussed in another thread, with the faculty stretched so thin by the “triple threat”, I don’t know if you they can provide more support even if they want to.</p>
<p>DAndrew, what would you consider a good performance for the boarding school segment? I don’t think I saw any school with two finalists on the list, other than the Harker School. I don’t see Intel science finalists as a verdict on any school’s quality. Far too few students participate nationally for it to be an indicator.</p>
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I think support comes from home and school. External support from scientific parents and mentors can be crucial. Even a magnificently equipped high school lab won’t come close to a university or industrial set-up.</p>
<p>I’m not convinced by the line of argument, “If (School) is superb, and (students) are the best there are, then (School) will dominate (fill in name of prestigious contest).” I’ve never been a judge of science fairs and such, but to become a finalist in the Intel Science competition seems to call for a certain degree of single-minded focus on creating a winning entry. I think if a student likes the idea of devoting large periods of time to work in one scientific area, he or she might not be willing to sign up for a school model which calls for mandatory sports competitions, assemblies, and all the other demands on boarding school students’ time. </p>
<p>Boarding schools are well represented in the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament. Granted, the schools may recruit for mathematics talent. [HMMT:</a> Archive](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/hmmt/www/datafiles/results/]HMMT:”>http://web.mit.edu/hmmt/www/datafiles/results/)</p>
<p>I’m more surprised not to see any finalists from the Bronx High School of Science, or Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.</p>
<p>I am not surprised to see Evan O’Dorney on the list.</p>