February 9, 2006

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

Chinese-American parents bridge gap to support Leland High School

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Leland Bridge welcomed the Chinese New Year with a bang while raising over $10,000 for Leland High School at the group’s fifth annual gala event this past weekend.

Everyone at the Leland Bridge Chinese New Year’s gala and fund-raiser had a great time. Above, from left: Chief-coordinator Nancy Young, Wen Lin Chen, District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle and Rai Peng. Photos by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

“On behalf of Leland Bridge, I want to thank you for your support,” said Leland Bridge chief coordinator Nancy Young. “Five years ago, Leland needed funds for a new media center. This small group of parents also had the vision to correct the misconception that the Chinese do not volunteer nor participate at school fund-raising events. The founders of Leland Bridge raised $25,000 for the foundation!”

The group is named Leland Bridge in reference to bridging the gap between Chinese-American parents and the high school. More than 300 dedicated families are members. The group has donated thousands of dollars and support yearly for Leland Foundations, Parent’s Club, AP and PSAT test, the award-winning speech and debate team, teacher appreciation, registration week and other special projects. A Chinese-language newsletter is sent out twice a year to members to keep them informed of current Leland High activities and needs.

Last year, Leland Bridge donated $6,000 for the new science project, $300 for robotics teams and $1,500 for the speech and debate team. But they don’t stop there. Last summer there was a special need.

“A group of IBM parents has helped to establish the UC physics lab by donating $45,536 of IBM computers,” said assistant principal of activities Paul Yllana in a thank-you letter to Leland Bridge. “Coordinated by Angel Reyda and with the help of Nancy Young and Bob Kwok, these parents have helped Leland to pioneer a new program that will significantly enhance the offerings of the Leland science department for the 2005-2006 school year and for many years to come. Thanks for all your help IBM parents.”

Student Jenny Shieh’s dance of the “shake sleeve” was breathtakingly beautiful. She learned the dance at the San Jose Chinese School on the Leland campus Saturday mornings.

Chinese New Year gala
Donations are raised annually with the Chinese New Year celebration and fund-raiser. This year, 340 tickets were sold for the Chinese dinner and dessert fund-raiser organized by 75 Leland Bridge parents and students. A silent auction and raffle raises additional funds. But what excites the attendees the most is the talent presented by students and parents in the transformed cafeteria, which was decorated with red lanterns and delicate flower arrangements. And, many women and girls were beautifully attired in delicate brocade dresses.

District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle attended the event to thank Leland Bridge for their fund-raising efforts and commend the group for the beautiful evening.

“I was here when half a dozen parents raised $25,000 in two weeks,” said Leland High Principal Bob Setterlund at the beginning of the Chinese New Year program. “Thank you for all you do and for putting on this wonderful event.”

Setterlund also announced that Leland has a formal agreement in creating a sister school, Zhournan High School in Changsha, China. Thirty-nine percent of Leland students are Asian and 150 speak Chinese. Many attend the Mandarin language classes and cultural activities at the San Jose Chinese School that uses the Leland campus every Saturday.

“The sister school is a wonderful opportunity,” said Setterlund. “We will exchange teachers and eventually students.”

Talented performers entertained the audience by playing instruments, singing, dancing, performing in comedy routines and martial arts to the delight of the audience. And there was something for everyone as students performed a beautiful traditional Chinese dance and other students sang the Michael Buble hit “Home.”

One thing is for sure, Leland’s Chinese-American parents know how to throw a great New Year’s Eve celebration. At last count, they raised more than $10,300 for the school before expenses.

Williams’ science fair highlights curious side of students

By Lorraine Gabbert
Staff Writer

The excitement was palpable at Williams Elementary School’s annual Science-O-Rama! science fair Friday night as students showed off their award-winning experiments to family and friends.

Above: Fifth grade students, pictured here with coordinators Maya Jio and Jaya Maturi, were excited to participate in the Science-O-Rama! science fair.

With experiments ranging from “Paper Airplane Flying Test” and “Finding the Best Bubble Bath” to “DNA Breakdown,” the amateur scientists focused on life, physical and earth sciences. Amusingly, the more popular choices focused on the decomposition of fruit and how much salt is required to float an egg. However, as main coordinator Maya Jio noted, even when several students chose the same subject, interesting variations resulted.

“Some chose the simplest of projects,” said science teacher Rhoda Mirabeau, who spearheaded the project, “but there was so much depth and study into their topic, it was impressive.”

Sponsored by a grant from the Synopsys Outreach Foundation, the Science-O-Rama! science fair provided an opportunity for students to not only learn, but enjoy science while meeting state science standards. “I’ve never really been crazy about science,” said fifth grader Billy Lepage, “but now, I am.”

“I had a group of excited parents who felt the same way I did about the science fair,” said Mirabeau, “and they helped me arrange everything.” In fact, last year’s parent volunteers trained this year’s assistants, and Mirabeau already has parents lined up to help with the event next year.

During the course of the project, which extended from the end of November to early February, the students gathered their information at school and conducted their experiments at home. They also met with parent volunteer mentors on a weekly basis to review their work prior to the fair.

Despite the hard work, through working on their experiments, these fifth grade students learned to love science.

In addition to the support of the school staff and community, the students and Mirabeau have an ally in science teacher Molly Pine at Los Alamitos Elementary School. Experienced with conducting science fairs, Pine was an invaluable resource for Mirabeau, especially during her first year guiding the program. Looking ahead, they are currently working together and sharing ideas for future shows.

After choosing their topic of interest, each student was responsible for gathering materials, keeping a research journal, conducting the experiments and creating a display board. In working on their experiments, they learned scientific concepts, asked meaningful questions and conducted careful investigations. Even while rolling balls, they studied acceleration and speed. “They approached it like scientists,” says Jio.

On the day of the fair, they presented their projects, as well as oral reports, to judges comprising industry professionals, parents and teachers. As each student’s work was judged on its own merit, and awarded a ribbon based upon an individual point system, there was no limit of first, second and third place winners. In fact, this year they ran out of first-place ribbons as about 70 out of 124 students took top honors. About 30-40 students won second-place ribbons, with the remainder placing in third. “The judges were impressed,” said Jio.

Mirabeau appreciates how much the students got out of working on their projects, including experience with data charts, math, journaling, science and public speaking. “They were able to choose their own projects and self-teach through the process,” she said. “Like scientists, they recorded everything they did in their journals, and had a chance to reflect on their work.”

Billy Lepage’s “Reproducing a Chemical Reaction” experiment focused on repeatedly exploding a volcano. He learned that vinegar rather than baking soda would revive the reaction. “It was a lot of work and research,” he said, “but it was very fun.”

During the process, Jio noticed the students’ attitude transform. “At first they considered their projects course requirements,” she said, “But, as they started to do their research, they became interested and engrossed with their experiments, and they learned so much from it.”

Jio enjoyed seeing the pride and excitement evident on the student’s faces at the science fair. “It’s very rewarding,” she said.

Event coordinator Jaya Maturi put her experience working at Intel Chemical Lab to work, assisting on this event. “It’s a wonderful experience,” she said. “They learn so much, not only about their experiments, but also about working on excerpts, collecting data and research.” Maturi considers the science fair highly worthwhile. “It’s one of the best things they’ve done at this school,” she said. “I’m amazed by what the children accomplished.”

Wide-eyed younger siblings and Williams’ students also attended the Science-O-Rama! science fair, looking ahead to the future when it would be their turn to shine.

Fourth graders Jennifer Lu and Lancine Wou found the science fair projects varied and thought provoking. “They’re interesting because they show what steps to take,” said Wou. She was intrigued by Darren Hsu’s “Which Side of the Brain Do Boys or Girls Favor?” and plans to select it for her experiment next year.

Aarthi Venkat, who thought the project boards were impressive and nice to look at, had no doubt as to her favorite. “It’s my sister’s!” she declared with an enormous grin.

In her “Egg-cellent Experiment,” Kayla De Graw included photos of herself going through the step-by-step process. “I thought it would be pretty fun experiment,” she said, “and it was pretty cool.” Garnering a second-place ribbon, De Graw’s experiment showed that it took three tablespoons of salt to float an egg. “I thought it would float!” she said.

Kayla De Graw’s “Egg-cellent” experiment taught her that eggs can float in salt water. “It was pretty cool,” she said.

Billy Lepage’s first-place experiment, “Reproducing a Chemical Reaction” focused on repeatedly exploding a volcano. Following his research question, “What is the effect of using more baking soda on a settled reaction of vinegar and baking soda?” he learned that vinegar rather than baking soda would revive the reaction. “It was a lot of work and research,” he said, “but it was very fun.”

Fifth grader Arian Rahbar agreed. “It took a long time to do and took over our homework,” he said, “It taught us responsibility. They say you have to work hard to get into sixth grade. I know what they mean now.”

The science fair was so important to student Taemin Ahn, that even though he was hit by a car earlier in the week, he returned to school to meet with the judges. His experiment, “Sunlight, Do Plants Really Need It?” was a labor of love, dedicated to his mother. “Since my mother has a garden,” he wrote, “I wanted to do this experiment to find out whether sunlight affected plant growth.” He found that plants grew better in sunlight, and produced more flowers than those planted in the shade.

“It mattered to him that much,” said Mirabeau, “and to all the students. We had a 100 percent turnout of posters presented for the show. It’s really incredible.”

Mirabeau considers the science fair program a wonderful opportunity for the students and can’t help being excited about it herself. “I’m already looking forward to next year’s show,” she said.