COVID-19 testing and treatments explained: Cases ramp up as researchers race to find sustainable cures
by Mark Hu, Katie Wang, and Nicholas Wei
May 20, 2020
As COVID-19 infections continue to spread across the nation, hospitals across Santa Clara Valley are taking measures to increase the number of resources available for patients, including ventilators and hospital beds, as researchers search for a vaccine, a long term solution to the virus. Commercial and academic laboratories throughout the Bay Area are faci...
STEM Scene: Upper school clubs continue activities in quarantine
by Tiffany Chang, TALON Reporter
May 4, 2020
With COVID-19 pushing everyone to pioneer alternatives for events made unfeasible by shelter-in-place, upper school STEM clubs have risen to the challenge. Despite the inability to continue hands-on activities or hold on-site events, clubs are managing to stay active through a variety of innovative events ...
Upper school cafeteria limits self-served food items to limit the spread of COVID-19, among other local health measures
by Mark Hu and Sabrina Zhu
March 9, 2020
The upper school has recently removed self-serve food stations to reduce extra student contact with food due to concerns over the coronavirus. As of March 6, the salad and fruit bar in Manzanita and Fresh Mex’s condiment station, which includes guacamole and various salsas, in the auxiliary gym now ...
Upper school hosts annual Harker Programming Invitational with extra precautions due to coronavirus concerns
by Sabrina Zhu, Anna Vazhaeparambil, and Mark Hu
March 8, 2020
Three students huddle around a table in the Nichols atrium, speaking in hushed voices together as their eyes focus on the problem set in front of them. One picks up a pencil and begins drawing out a list of numbers on the page, attempting to explain a potential solution to his teammates. After th...
Annual Synopsys science fair goes virtual in response to concerns over coronavirus spread
by Mark Hu and Sabrina Zhu
March 6, 2020
The annual Synopsys Science & Technology Championship, which features work from students in Santa Clara Valley, is going virtual due to concerns over the coronavirus. The competition has been held annually at the San Jose Convention Center, but for precautionary reasons, the Santa Clara Vall...
Upper school science bowl team wins regional competition
by Mark Hu, Winged Post STEM Editor
February 24, 2020
The Department of Energy’s regional science bowl took place at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park on Feb. 8, and the upper school science bowl A team was crowned champions remaining undefeated in competition. They will now represent the Bay Area at the National Science Bowl held in W...
Fighting fire: Australia battles blazing bushfires in war against climate change
by Emily Tan and Brian Chen
February 4, 2020
26.9 million acres burned. More than 3,000 homes destroyed. 33 deaths, including nine firefighters, as of Jan. 31, according to the Crisis Coordination Center of the Australian government. And over one billion bird, mammal, and reptile deaths, according to the Australian Academy of Science. This is th...
STEM Scene: Upcoming contests and competitions
by Sally Zhu and Amruta Dharmapurikar
January 15, 2020
AMC The American Mathematics Competitions (AMCs) will take place on Thursday, January 30. The AMC 10A and AMC 12A are math contests open to all students in or below grades ten and twelve, respectively. Students answer 25 multiple choice questions for 75 minutes, and high scorers advance to fo...
Two seniors named as Regeneron scholars
by Varsha Rammohan and Arushi Saxena
January 8, 2020
Seniors Cynthia Chen and Joshua Zhou were selected as top scholars in the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) from a pool of 1,993 applicants from 659 schools in 49 states. The 300 scholars chosen and their respective schools will be awarded 2,000 dollars each. Cynthia’s research focused on using comput...
HarkerDev heads towards future
by Emily Tan, Assistant Features Editor
December 7, 2019
Standing behind the microphone in front of the student body and faculty, Bennett Liu (12), John Lynch (11), Gloria Zhu (10) and Chirag Kaushik (10), the four admins of the upper school’s software development organization HarkerDev, preview applications coming soon to the upper school, like an app ...
#TeamTrees raises environmental awareness
November 18, 2019
A large black number hovers momentarily at 19,999,966 on a live YouTube subscriber count and suddenly spikes past 20 million; James “Jimmy” Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has just reached 20 million subscribers on YouTube. The ensuing torrent of comments and Reddit posts all prompt him to do...
Hands-on, ready for robots: New robotics members start preparing for build season
by Isha Moorjani and Sabrina Zhu
November 18, 2019
A group of young engineers gather around a table on a Thursday afternoon in early November, wearing clear goggles and curious looks. They observe closely as Chloe Affaki (11), Machining Director of Harker Robotics, drills one centimeter holes into a metal plate, carefully showing the precise movements. Every...