Science challenge accepted - and won - by Fleetwood Park students

Fleetwood Park Secondary’s senior team won the 2018 Kwantlen Science Challenge. Pictured (from left to right) are Monica Nam, Ramit Kataria, Amy Chen, Joshua Lee, Terence Sun, Tony Zhao and Henry Huang.  Not pictured are Hank Wu, Ben Ji, Clement Halim and Aaron Wang, who were also involved in the design and building of the hovercraft. 

A team of budding scientists from Fleetwood Park Secondary took first place, out-smarting 29 other senior school teams at the recent Kwantlen Science Challenge.

The competition, which took place at Kwantlen Polytechnic University's Richmond campus, asked students to test their skills in five, one-hour-long, practical laboratory activities in biology, chemistry, environmental science, geology, engineering design, math and physics. The challenges included everything from performing lab tests, to competing in a Jeopardy-style science quiz, to designing and launching a hovercraft.

Fleetwood Park's senior team (Grade 11 and 12s) had perfect scores in the chemistry, Jeopardy and design categories, the latter for their successful hovercraft creation. Team members included students Monica Nam, Ramit Kataria, Amy Chen, Joshua Lee, Terence Sun, Tony Zhao, Henry Huang, Hank Wu, Ben Ji, Clement Halim and Aaron Wang.

"The team worked tirelessly for a month leading up to the event, testing out multiple prototypes of their hovercraft and even 3D printing their own fans to use in the design," said computer science and physics teacher Brianna Stusiak. "The team also met several times to practice for the Jeopardy round and study the concepts for the lab rounds. It was amazing to see all of their hard work pay off in the end."

Fraser Heights, Sullivan Heights, Earl Marriott and Semiahmoo all fielded senior teams in the competition as well. Fraser Heights finished sixth, Earl Marriott was 18th, Semiahmoo was 24th and Sullivan Heights finished 26th.

Fraser Heights and Semiahmoo also had junior teams (Grades 8-10) competing, which finished fifth and 11th, respectively.