Tag Archives: science bowl

Rocks for sale, Seasonality, and Why zat mattah anyway?

These rocks are for sale up in Maple Grove:

They are described as “Huge rocks” but I question that because they look like small rocks to me.

Their condition is listed as “Used-Like New.” I question that too. This is new rock:

LOL Lavioli.

A typical Minnesota bus stop when the first day of shorts and the last day of coat happen on the same day:

Just in case you haven’t heard, the Wayzata (that’s our school) Science Bowl team won the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP this year. This is not a small feat. The teams that win, and compete to almost the end, tend to be 3-5K science and technology magnet schools. Wayzata is a great school, but it is a general high school for a fairly large district. Wayzata is pronounced “Why Zat Ah” rhymes with “Why’s it matter” said in a thick Boston accent.

An interest in science at high school age is a very healthy thing.

OK, maybe not.

How to write a letter to the editor. This one is a good example. At some point we’ll have a beer and I’ll point out the key features:

Amanda's Wayzata High School Science Bowl Team And Their Amazing Captain.

One of our local news stations, WCCO (Channel 4) CBS, has this story.

Blindness Isnโ€™t Stopping This 15-Year-old H.S. Seniorโ€™s Quest For Knowledge

WAYZATA, Minn. (WCCO) โ€“ When the Wayzata Science Bowl team practices, they mean business. They just won the state championship, and they are now getting ready for nationals in Washington, D.C.

Theyโ€™re all smart kids, thatโ€™s obvious, but one of them stands out โ€” team captain Nathan Stocking.
โ€œThe other team gets intimidated,โ€ said teammate Jayant Chaudhary, โ€œbecause he doesnโ€™t even need paper for pretty complex complications.โ€

Stocking is a high school senior, even though heโ€™s only 15 years old.

โ€œWhether itโ€™s speaking Spanish or Chinese, or if itโ€™s programming computer scripts, or if itโ€™s knowing every detail about a science subject, he excels in all of them,โ€ said teacher Amanda Laden.
But something else is different about Stocking. He canโ€™t see.

โ€œI think he was born smart,โ€ says his mother, Karen Cotch. โ€œHe just thrives on knowledgeโ€ฆand weโ€™re just the ones who try to find ways to feed it.โ€

Stocking lost his sight when he was only a few months old, but heโ€™s been amazing people ever since.
โ€œAt around 8, he started taking middle school classes,โ€ she said. โ€œHis first A.P. class, he was 11, and he went to the high school for that.โ€

Now, heโ€™s only at the high school for science bowl. His college-level classes are all online or through special instructors.

โ€œI never really had a formal grade until this year,โ€ he said.

And then thereโ€™s his music….

Read the rest here.