Honor Code
Interview 5
CHIAPAS: WHAT
THE POSTERS WERE
ALL ABOUT PC. 7
Curfew: Five
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Shadcw PS.C
stentorian
the north Carolina school of science and mathematics 1219 Broad Street, Durham NC 2 7705
XXX http://www.ncssm.edu/istentorian
December 2004
NCSSM Sweeps Siemens Westinghouse
By Connie Chu
This year, ten regional
finalists in the Siemens-
Westinghouse Competition
came from the North Carolina
School of Science of
Mathematics. Buro Mookeiji,
Amanda Mason, Lucie Guo,
Xianlin Li, Claire Reddy,
Yajing Gao, Ying Liu, Jeff Hu,
Nick Cook, and Lee Ricketson
were flown down to Atlanta,
Georgia, along with Dr. Myra
Halpin where they stayed in a
five star hotel, courtesy of the
Siemens Foundation. Each
regional finalist received a
$1,000 scholarship, a medal,
and a backpack with various
prizes, including a digital cam
era. Buro Mookeiji went on to
win fifth place at the national
level of the individual compe
tition, an honor that comes
with a $20,000 scholarship.
Lucie Guo and Xianlin Li
advanced to win first place at
Nationals as a team; they will
split a $100,000 scholarship.
“[At Regionals] there
wasn't really much competi
tion because we were all
friends, so it was kinda like a
vacation where we had to pres
ent a few times,” said Ying
Liu. Regional finalists were
required to prepare a poster
display of their research proj
ect, deliver a 12-minute oral
presentation about their
research and findings, and par
ticipate in a 12-r
minute private!
question andL
answer session ^
with the I
judges. Theyl
were judged on|
clarity of
expression,
comprehen
siveness, cre
ativity, field I
knowledge,
future work,
interpretation,
literature!
review, presen- Siemen’s Regonial Finalists from Science and Math
tation, scientif-
to see them grow as
researchers and see them ask
questions and find the answers
themselves. The students do all
the work; I just get to support
them in all their efforts and
learn from what they’re
i V
ic importance, validity, and, in
the case of the team competi
tion, teamwork.
Dr. Halpin said of the
regional finalists she advised,
“[At the competition] I just get
to sit back like a proud
momma and say, ‘Didn’t they
do well?’ It’s a lot of pleasure
doing.”
“We did a lot of stuff,”
said Lucie Guo, “Surprisingly,
we actually squeezed in a lot
of fun ... over the weekend,
like touring CNN, going to
Barnes and Noble’s, hanging
out with our friends at the
hotel, and, of course, a lot of
power naps.
“It was one of the best
weekends of my life!” said
Amanda Mason. “The quality
of the projects was truly amaz
ing. I know this sounds nerdy,
but I was completely riveted
I by each of the
Italics. Also, the
I Siemens people
I really treated us
all like VIPs.
They made us
feel like our
work was
important.”
Buro
iMookeiji’s proj-
ject, entitled
“Synthesis and
Characterization
of Novel
Phenylbis (mer-
Dr. Halpin captoimidazolyl)
Borates of
Manganese and Zinc,” focused -
on the fundamental coordina
tion chemistry of zinc. It dealt
primarily with synthesizing
transition metal salts of the lig
and system known as phenyl-
bis(mercaptoimidazolyl)borate
s. “The novelty of this
research,” Mookerji says.
“[lies] primarily in the fact that
[historically] this ligand sys
tem has only been synthesized
with the element rhenium. So,
by using simple precipitation
reactions in methanol and a
series of analytical chemistry
techniques, we can develop
this understanding of the reac
tivity and structure of these
ligands.” Through his work,
conducted during a ten-week
summer session when he was
enrolled as an undergraduate
student at UNC Charlotte,
Mookeiji discovered a metal
bonding sphere of zinc and a
potential model of an enzyme
used in the production of DNA
nucleic acids.
Mason studied the genetic
basis of hybrid sterility in
hybrids of Mimulus guttatus
and Mimulus nasutus, two
closely related yellow mon-
keyflower species. The pur
pose of her project was to help
scientists understand'the evo
lution of these two species
from a common ancestor.
“Biology was always my
thing,”
continued on pg. 3
Boarman speaks O’Dell talks about the future
Kristoph Kleiner
AND Ying Liu
Walking into the office of
Dr. Gerald “Jerry” Boarman
on the second floor of Royall
on a clear October day, the
first thing you notice is the
strategically arranged array of
books on the bookshelf behind
his desk. Titles range from
Colin Powell: Epic of Man to
Children of Color to the Book
of Golf Although it looked
more like the office of a cor
porate CEO than the principal
of a high school. Dr. Boarman
cheerfully welcomed us in and
answered our questions.
To begin the inter
view, we asked Dr. Boarman
why he took the position of
Director/President of NCSSM.
Surprisingly, he did not apply
for the job. Instead, he was
asked to suggest someone else.
Later however, the search
committee did offer him the
job, but found him already
with a prior commitment.
They asked again a year later.
and Dr. Boarman arrived at
NCSSM in 1999.
However, when he
first arrived at NCSSM, the
campus was in minor ruins.
Royall was boarded up, Bryan
was a mess and the swing set
area was covered in barbed
wire and graffiti. The technol
ogy at the school was horrible,
and Dr. Boarman noted, “the
computers were lame.”
Although not beauti
ful, the school’s dogma
appealed to Dr. Boarman, and
he decided to come to
NCSSM. Since his arrival. Dr.
Boarman has instigated major
changes.
Dr. Boarman views
his role as “myriad.” He is
responsible for fiduciary
responsibilities like the budget
and procuring funds. Since his
arrival, he has worked with the
legislature to secure an addi
tional $1.4-1.6 million dollars.
He is also the
“instructional leader of the
school.” His major
continued on pg. 2
TylerHuffman & Josh
Weterington
"I'm worried for the future
of this school." — Carol
O’Dell
As president of the
Faculty Council, instructor of
mathematics and sponsor for
various student organizations,
Carol O'Dell is one of the most
active and outspoken members
of the NCSSM community.
Despite her contributions to
the school. Dr. O'Dell was
recently informed by a letter
from NCSSM President
Gerald “Jerry” Boarman that
she will no longer have a
teaching position at NCSSM
following the 2004-2005
school year. In a separate let
ter signed by NCSSM Senior
Vice Presidents Sally Adkin,
Joan Barber and Steve
Warshaw, Dr. O’Dell was
informed that the grounds for
this decision included giving
lower grades than her col
leagues, having a large number
of parent complaints and dis
tributing data that was deemed
erroneous. In a recent inter
view with the Stentorian, Dr.
O'Dell said that she views this
action as the next step in a
string of events that is reduc
ing the school to the level of an
ordinary "good public high
school with block scheduling."
The NCSSM Student
Handbook states that the
school "supports and encour
ages freedom ... of inquiry and
expression for faculty mem
bers and students so that they
may responsibly pursue” the
goals of “transmission and
advancement of knowledge
and understanding." However,
according to Dr. O'Dell, the
NCSSM community does not
support this carefully worded
policy which was adopted by
the Board of Trustees in 1995.
She claimed that many teach
ers have been chastised “for
asking questions administra
tors didn't want to answer."
A few years ago,
while doing a study to see
whether NCSSM should
become more in line with the
UNC system. Dr. O'Dell
requested salary data from the
school so that.she could com
pare NCSSM tehcher salaries
with those of professors from
smaller schools within the
UNC system such as UNC-
Wilmington and Western
Carolina University. Despite
the fact that these are public
records the school is required
to provide, she was denied the
information and prevented
from completing her research.
Members of the class
of 2005 may remember the
surveys given out at the end of
the 2003-2004 school year
asking about their experience
at Science and Math. After
posing a statement, students
were left with five options to
choose from: "Disagree,
Slightly Agree, Agree,
Strongly Agree, or No
Opinion". The survey
appeared to be biased, since
from a statistical standpoint it
offered three ways to agree
and only
continued on pg. 2