News
March 20, 2018Brown School Achieves First Place in The Model Car Competition at The NYS Capital Region Science Bowl, For The Third Year in a Row
The NYS Capital Region Science Bowl Is A Division of the National Science Bowl, an Annual Event Throughout the Nation Sponsored by the Department of Energy
Brown School, an independent school that serves children nursery through grade nine, achieved first place in the model car competition at the NYS Capital Region Science Bowl where they competed against other middle schools for the title.
Molly Ryf, a middle school science teacher at Brown and Janet Barnett, a parent who is a computer scientist and woodworker, headed up the team that earned the first place honor. “I am hoping the students have learned to push themselves out of their comfort zone and have grown. I’m hoping they have learned to be more creative and think ‘outside of the box.’ If a design they were working on was failing in some way, the students were asking questions of themselves and of the adults in the room to come up with a solution. The group as a whole worked very well together; they listened to each other and made sure to include everyone. I hope they continue to build upon these skills as they move forward with their academics,” said Ryf.
The Regional Science Bowl Competition includes both a car race and an academic question round. The students began preparing for the event in October by working on sample questions for the quiz bowl portion and building cars and launchers. This year 14 students who are in sixth, seventh and eighth grade at Brown School prepared for the event. Five of those students were selected to be on the team that actually competed.
Janet Barnett worked with the students on the car and launcher building part of the program. The 14 students divided into teams to build three cars and launchers. Parents and teachers handled the sharp tools and were available for questions, but otherwise the students took the lead. The teams at the school held an internal race to see which car and launcher would head to the competition. “Everyone worked very well together. Even though there were internal teams, the kids put those boundaries aside and helped each other out. Initial designs and plans didn’t always work out and they wanted to learn why and figure out alternatives. It was exactly how real world engineers work and it was really wonderful to see these students engineering their solutions,” said Barnett.
The National Science Bowl is an annual event that was created by the Department of Energy. Regional competitions are held throughout the country and there is a national event too. These events are for both middle and high school students. Volunteers from GE and Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation, as well as the GE Volunteers and KAPL Nova Society, conduct the NYS Capital Region competition.
Teresa Burke, the director of the middle school and high school was excited about the outcome and what it means for everyone. “Brown School has a robust STEM program as part of our academic curriculum. We also put a strong emphasis on the arts, which makes us a leader in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math). However, a big part of our success here comes back to teamwork and that is an area we work on in all classes and at all grade levels,” said Burke.
