The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

Third-grader Sofia Mohammed received her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Nov. 12. The FDA officially authorized the emergency use of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children from 5-11 years old with a 91% efficacy rate on Oct. 29.

COVID-19 vaccination mandates enforced in New Zealand, Italy and United States

by Ananya Sriram and Brandon Zau December 1, 2021

New Zealand and Italy placed new vaccine mandates and authorized more vaccines in October to increase vaccination amongst education and healthcare workers. As of Nov. 3, the United States has reported...

The classroom of upper school math teacher Gabriele Stahl. All upper school math teachers prepared their classrooms by separating desks before the AMC 10 and 12 exams on Nov. 10. The contests were administered in-person this year, though students still took the exams on their laptops.

Annual AMC 10 and 12 exams return to in-person testing

by Catherine Wong, Reporter November 27, 2021

More than 150 upper school students participated in the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) 10 exam and 12 A exam on Nov. 10 from 8 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. in Dobbins Hall.  The AMC 10 was only available...

Monterey Bay Aquarium visitors watch native species, including the giant kelp, in one of the establishments exhibitions. The aquarium protects marine species by providing information about climate change and maintaining research and surrogacy programs.

Global Reset: In a world of warming oceans, what does a sanctuary provide?

by Sabrina Zhu and Alysa Suleiman November 8, 2021

560 billion tons of CO2 absorbed. A 30% increase in the acidity of surface waters. A roughly 50 times faster rate of change in oceanic pH. 5652 marine species classified as threatened. This is the damage...

A nurse prepares a Pfizer booster shot at the San Jose Valley Medical Center on October 18. After preparation, the booster can then be administered to elderly and immunocompromised citizens.

FDA approves Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster shots, administration currently underway

by Edward Huang, Reporter October 26, 2021

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared COVID-19 booster shots from Pfizer to be safe for individuals over the age of 65, people with compromised immune systems and essential workers on Sept. 22...

Nageena Singh (12) takes notes on her iPad Pro. She found the device especially valuable during her trip to Philadelphia since she brought her iPad instead of multiple heavy textbooks.

Teeming with tech: Harker community’s favorite gadgets

by Kinnera Mulam, Reporter October 12, 2021

Apple Watch: Panting as beads of perspiration trickle down her face, Ishani Sood (10) pushes through the last few seconds of her fencing practice, prompting her Apple Watch to vibrate in response as...

Smoke fills the sky ahead of upper school Spanish teacher and Green Team adviser Diana Moss’s car as she is about to drive past the Dixie Fire. The fire has burnt over 963,309 acres.

‘It burns and it burns and it burns’: California wildfires raze 2.4 million acres in midst of climate emergency, community members recover and reflect

by Sabrina Zhu and Arely Sun October 10, 2021

“It was like driving into hell.” A pitch black sky surrounded upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss as she neared the Dixie fire, while she passed through the small city of Red Bluff in ​​Tehama...

STEM Scene showcases briefs to update our community on the STEM world.

STEM Scene: Oct. 8

by Mark Hu, Winged Post Managing Editor October 8, 2021

Whistle-Blower accuses Facebook of prioritizing profits over safety amid major server outage Frances Haugen, a former product manager at Facebook, revealed that the company knew that Instagram,...

WiSTEM officers Kavita Murthy (12), Claire Luo (10), Ella Yee (10), Emily Zhou (12), Amiya Chokhawala (11), Catherine He (12), Thresia Vazhaeparambil (12) and Eileen Ma (11) hold a club meeting in the Nichols Atrium on Sept. 20. The club aims to encourage more female students to participate in STEM fields.

STEM Spotlight: Women in STEM

by Katelyn Zhao, Reporter October 5, 2021

STEM Spotlight is a repeater exploring what clubs at Harker have been doing as they return to campus. This week’s featured club is WiSTEM, which aims to foster STEM interest in female students. The...

Inspiration4, a space mission managed by SpaceX that carried the first civilian crew into orbit, successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 15 and landed three days later off the coast of the space center. Jared Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4 Payments, captained the mission and bought the flight to support and raise funds for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

A new generation of space travel

by Margaret Cartee, Reporter October 3, 2021

Tendrils of fading mist float off the frigid engines of Inspiration4 five minutes before takeoff, a result of the supercooled liquid oxygen chilling the engines prelaunch. In SpaceX’s YouTube livestream,...

STEM Spotlight is a new Aquila repeater showcasing STEM clubs and their initiatives.

STEM Spotlight: HarkerDEV

by Mark Hu and Ethan Liu September 26, 2021

STEM Spotlight is a repeater exploring what clubs at Harker have been doing as they return to campus. This week’s featured club is HarkerDEV, which creates new software and applications that help the...

The global silicon shortage, driven mainly by the pandemic, has hampered the production of widespread technologies, including automobiles.

How a 50 cent part is killing a trillion dollar industry

by Arjun Barrett, Assistant STEM Editor September 25, 2021

As the world finally transitions out of a global pandemic, cars remain in short supply. Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen have all cut production by as much as 40%. But the automotive industry isn’t merely...

Panelists Dr. Pei Cao, Jenny Lin, Lynn Root and Pavitra Rengarajan (’12) speak at the Girls Programming League Challenge on Saturday. The event invited female and nonbinary identifying students to participate and followed a theme of computer science and entertainment.

Girls Programming League inspires female students to compete in annual programming competition

by Ella Yee and Catherine Wong September 23, 2021

Garnering 76 teams across 45 schools and a total of 120 participants, the Girls Programming League (GPL) and the Harker Programming Club (HPC) co-hosted the fourth annual GPL challenge through Zoom on...

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