Harker students recently submitted research papers for the National Siemens Competition, a contest that involves conducting independent research and articulating findings in a formalized document.

49 students submitted research papers for the National Siemens Competition, which were due Sept. 30. Harker students have been participating in the competition since 2008. Since then, the Upper School has had a total of ten regional finalists and two national semi-finalists.

“I think that [the Siemens Competition] is great for setting an arbitrary deadline for students to create a technical writing document and providing experience,” Upper School physics teacher Chris Spenner said. “And I think it is great for students to engage in a serious research project.”

Freshmen, sophomores, and juniors had to work with a partner, but seniors could choose to work individually. Each group of students submitted a research report on a study they conducted. 300 reports will be selected by professionals studying a similar topic and the students who authored them will continue on to the semifinal round.

Many participants in the competition worked under a lab director who provided support and ideas for suitable topics to research. Usually the director would assign the students to a mentor who taught the necessary material and skills needed to proceed with the experiment.

“The SIP Harker program helped by connecting me with a partner from another school and a very helpful mentor, a postdoc from UCSC. Writing the paper was relatively easy due to the presentation my partner and I did at the end of SIP,” Evan Lohn (11) said.

The time to prepare for the experiment ranges from a couple months to two to three years. In that time, students worked to familiarize themselves with their topic.

“I started working on my project since the beginning of the summer all the way until the due date,” Michael Zhao (11) said.

Science teachers, such as Upper School biology and psychology teacher Jeff Sutton, served as mentors to help make edits and improve the quality of the papers. Students could choose a mentor through their internships. At school, students were assigned a mentor by science department chair Anita Chetty.

The Siemens Competition is just one out of the many science based contests that are popular amongst students at Harker. Despite Harker’s reputation as a STEM school, English teacher Ohad Paran commented that he believes the humanities are just as important and popular as the science and math based ones.

“Really when you get down in to talking to individual people, they like science a lot, and they want to succeed, but there is almost as many, if not just as many, who enjoy both,” Paran said. “And the beauty of going to a school like Harker is that you have the freedom to explore. You can do whatever you want.”

This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on October 17, 2014.