GLHS Science Academy Presents Strong in Competitions
Gahanna Lincoln High School’s Science Academy is designed to prepare students for future careers in science, research, engineering, robotics, programming, and the medical fields through a hands-on, project-based curriculum.
Science Academy alumni have been accepted into elite universities including MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Purdue, Rose-Hulman, Ohio State, University of Cincinnati, California Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve, and Washington University. Additionally, the last five years, three full-tuition scholarships to Case Western Reserve University have been earned as a direct result of students’ projects in Special Aspects. This honor has often spring boarded alumni into internships and jobs at companies like Abbott, Battelle, US Air Force, Northrop Grumman, and even NASA.
Special Aspects is one of several classes housed under the GLHS Science Academy umbrella. Scientific Literature and Composition is taught concurrently with Special Aspects to give students the skills necessary to read and write technical, scientific documents. Special Aspects, paired with Scientific Literature and Composition, is the scientific inquiry capstone course of the GLHS Science Academy program. This course involves students exploring the scientific method by performing their own science research project. Over the ten years that this course has been offered, student projects have involved a variety of topics including chemistry, astronomy, biology, renewable energy, microbiology, medicine, engineering, physics, computing, mathematics, psychology, sociology, and robotics.
To celebrate and showcase each student’s accomplishments, GLHS Science Academy hosted a school-wide Science Symposium in January. During this symposium, eight students gave oral presentations of their work to a panel of judges consisting of community members, former and current teachers and area business leaders. Additionally, Special Aspect students also displayed their projects in the auditorium lobby and talked with large groups of students, staff, parents and community members about their findings. Awards were given at the end of the event, and over $600 worth of prizes were paid out to students winning in various categories
Following the local event, Special Aspects students participated in other district and state wide science competitions including the Ohio Junior Science and Humanities Symposium [OJSHS], District and State Science Days, and the Columbus Technical Council. This year at the OJSHS at Bowling Green University, GLHS Senior Connor Ryan was awarded the Thomas Alva Edison award, and $250, for his project: Creating a Raspberry Pi Cluster Computer that Runs Python Programming. The Thomas Alva Edison Award is presented each year to a student who has independently constructed research equipment and carried out a successful research investigation.
During the District Science Day at Columbus State Community College in March, five representatives from GLHS received recognition as well. Kyle Ander, Dolores Pacheco, Sreekar Miriyala, Portia Baratta and Umar Jara earned an average score in the “Superior” range, and many students will move on to the Ohio State Science Day and Buckeye Science and Engineering Fair.