Tag Archives: science bowl

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

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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.

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

Blindness Isn’t Stopping This 15-Year-old H.S. Senior’s Quest For Knowledge

WAYZATA, Minn. (WCCO) – 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.

They’re all smart kids, that’s obvious, but one of them stands out — team captain Nathan Stocking.
“The other team gets intimidated,” said teammate Jayant Chaudhary, “because he doesn’t even need paper for pretty complex complications.”

Stocking is a high school senior, even though he’s only 15 years old.

“Whether it’s speaking Spanish or Chinese, or if it’s programming computer scripts, or if it’s knowing every detail about a science subject, he excels in all of them,” said teacher Amanda Laden.
But something else is different about Stocking. He can’t see.

“I think he was born smart,” says his mother, Karen Cotch. “He just thrives on knowledge…and we’re just the ones who try to find ways to feed it.”

Stocking lost his sight when he was only a few months old, but he’s been amazing people ever since.
“At around 8, he started taking middle school classes,” she said. “His first A.P. class, he was 11, and he went to the high school for that.”

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

“I never really had a formal grade until this year,” he said.

And then there’s his music….

Read the rest here.