By Cynthia Chin
Madison East High School
East students and current eighth graders are selecting courses for 2024-2025. Be sure to investigate all the options and think ahead about what can be done now to develop skills for a livelihood tomorrow. There are opportunities to develop cultural competence and artistic talent, investigate specific career fields, and get a head start on earning technical certifications or Madison College/UW-Madison credits. Talk to counselors soon about opportunities to begin your post-secondary studies early.
Math Club students have been competing virtually with other Dane County schools throughout the fall semester. New team members are welcome to join for upcoming math meets and the cool non-competitive problems discussed every week during lunch on Fridays. Contact Ms. Paschke or Mr. Galarowicz to get involved.
Two teams of East students participated in the November High School Mathematics Competition in Modeling. Students researched and modeled population growth of dandelions using computer simulations and coding the relative impacts of various climate variables. Students also debated and quantified the classification of dandelions as an invasive species (or not) and ranked them alongside other plants as to which were most worthy of proactive or reactive intervention within a given plant community.
A team of five seniors is gearing up for participation in the M3 Challenge sponsored by MathWorks and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. These students will complete a 14-hour research and technical writing challenge in March.
At our Noche De Ciencias event in November, East High’s Engineering Club and the LatinX Parent Group hosted guests from the UW-Madison College of Engineering and the wider STEM community for an evening of conversation and hands-on activities for the whole family, with information in both Spanish and English. Activities included model glider design, marble run, electric motor design, owl pellet analysis, and some up-close-and-personal time with scaly visitors from the Madison Area Herpetological Society.
In November, after a 4-year hiatus, 14 East students and 3 staff members participated in the annual Fall Regional Conference of the National Society of Black Engineers. Professionals, graduate and undergraduate students from all around the Midwest converged in Chicago. Students met with African and Black role models and mentors from a broad spectrum of industry and university programs. They also competed with high school counterparts from Columbus, Ohio and Chicago in the regional Try-Math-alon academic competition.
Thanks to these students for representing East High at the conference: Karis Bennett, Aliou Diakite, Welson Foueppe, Jorah Gandjui, Fatou Kujabi, Aariel Moore, Hayden Moseberry, Paul Mugisha, Khary Ndoye, Saidu Njie, Cyrus Olubi, Mbaye Sarr, Malachi Schultz, Jaidyn Templeton, Eva Tiako. Thanks also to the MMSD Pathways program, Madison East Investment Group, UW-Madison NSBE-WBESS, and past donor Rensselaer PolyTechnic Institute for helping to cover the costs of this multi-day experience.
Want to learn about nuclear science? We will visit the Nuclear Engineering Department on Feb. 22 for a tour, activity session and panel discussion with women in STEM. Interested students who identify as female, or as gender minorities, should contact their science teachers or Ms. Chin (cchin@madison.k12.wi.us) regarding this field trip.
All students are invited to participate in regular meetings of the Engineering Club in Room 150 (Woodshop) at noon on Thursdays.
Feb. 18–24 is National Engineers Week. The year’s theme is “Welcome to the Future!” Visit one of these websites for information about engineering careers (discovere.org/engineering-careers or students.egfi-k12.org), and talk to your counselor about options to pursue right now.
The Engineering Summer Program (ESP) and ProCSi summer sessions at UW-Madison are now accepting applicants. These are competitive applications which require teacher recommendation. Students from economic or cultural groups which have been historically underrepresented in engineering at Wisconsin colleges are especially encouraged to apply. All the programs are free and provide excellent career exposure and academic/technical education.
ESP is an in-person 3-week residential program for 11th and 12th graders (July 13Aug. 2) and a 1-week virtual program for 9th and 10th graders (June 24–28). ProCSi is a 1-week residential computational science camp (July 14–19 or July 21–26). The application window closes on March 11 for ESP and March 29 for ProCSi (engineering.wisc.edu/about/inclusion-equity-and-diversity/engineering-summer-program) (sbel.wisc.edu/procsi-h/).
America Saves Week is April 8–12. This year’s theme is “Saving For What Matters Most.” East students can improve their financial know-how by taking specific math, social studies, business, and family and consumer science courses. Read that course catalog carefully (americasavesweek.org).
Project Teen Money Scholarship Application for 2024 is now open. Visit Summit Credit Union (summitcreditunion.com/project-teen-money/about) to learn more about making a short, teen-friendly video on the topic “What are 3 things you would do with the gift of some money?” Scholarship prizes up to $3,000 are available. A student from East has won the grand prize the last 4 years. Let’s make it five!
