KIPP Inspire Academy students excelled in the regional Missouri Science Olympiad Tournament held earlier this month at Ladue Middle School. The KIPP Inspire Science Olympiad team was one of only two inner-city schools competing in the middle school division.
The nonprofit Missouri Science Olympiad and its national affiliate strive to improve the quality of K-12 science education and increase minority interest in science.
As a second year returning school, KIPP’s overall performance drastically improved, according to Nisha Wadhwani, KIPP Inspire Science Olympiad head coach and assistant principal at KIPP Inspire Academy in St. Louis.
“Of our 30 KIPPsters, 16 were recognized on stage for 5th place or higher in their events and 12 of those students received medals,” Wadhwani said. Last year, only four students received medals. “We even won our first gold medal!” she said.
That gold medal was won by Ruby McDaniel and Robert Ford in the boomilever event. “A boomilever is basically a horizontal tower made of balsa or bass wood,” Wadhwani said. “The students had to meet certain specifications and the boomilever that held the most weights won.”
SLPS middle school competes
The other inner-city school competing in the Science Olympiad was Gateway Middle School from St. Louis Public Schools. Michael Cowen Nissen, an eight grade science instructor at Gateway Middle School, responded to why he thought more inner-city schools don’t compete.
“One of the problems is that we’re so focused on our math and communication arts scores that science more often gets pushed to the wayside,” Cowen Nissen said, referring to the standardized testing so critical to public schools’ accreditation.
He mentioned other contributing factors like a lack of resources for science education and the disadvantaged backgrounds of some urban youths. “Science is a very difficult subject to teach. So, students come in a science class and are asked to think critically and do hands-on things, stuff they may not have been asked to do before,” he said. “And, it honestly wipes out the science teachers so there isn’t any energy left for extra-curricular activities.”
It’s one reason why Wadhwani sought outside help from college students and professors at Washington University, KIPP Inspire Academy’s sponsor, who have expertise in engineering, pre-med, environmental studies and music theory. They served as tutor coaches for the students.
“I’ve been trying to level the playing field by getting them this outside help,” Wadhwani said. She has championed for KIPP’s participation in the Science Olympiad because she wanted students to have the extra-curricular opportunities that are more accessible to more affluent students.
The Mission Possible event was perhaps the most impressive display of engineering ingenuity, according to Missouri Science Olympiad Region 6 Director Hugh McMonigle. In the Mission Possible event, Sean Price and Dasani Williams and Exyrius Hadley-Lockett and Naijah Triplett each won third and second place medals, respectively.
McMonigle strongly encouraged participating students, four of whom were from KIPP, to pursue careers in engineering.
In the Olympiad, teams accumulated points in events that were a combination of written tests on subjects such as heredity, meteorology and anatomy, and scientific demonstrations like the Rotor Egg Drop.
In this event, Shallen Briggs and Johnathon Stacker, of KIPP, used common household items to construct a device that could hold an egg while airborne. Once dropped from above, the device was expected to fly in such a way that when the egg hit the ground it wouldn’t crack; Shallen and Johnathon won 4th place.
Wadhwani proudly stated that this time around KIPP finished ranking 7th, up from last year’s 14th spot. Despite KIPP’s gains in several events, the team did not qualify to move on to the next level of competition reserved for the top four ranking schools.
Parkway West Middle School, Nipher, Sperreng and Ladue, in first place, advanced to the Missouri Science Olympiad State Tournament to be held April 6 at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
