The Talking Rams competed in the National Forensic League’s Eastern Missouri Speech and Debate District Tournament in March. Six students qualified to the national tournament, many other students made it to the final round, and the team won multiple honors.

National Qualifiers:
Sarah Allen – Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
Chloe An – Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
Collin Christner and Sydney Petersen – Duo Interpretation
Jerome Gregory – Original Oratory
Haohang Xu – Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Allen and Gregory were district champions in their respective events. Gregory also qualified in Lincoln-Douglas Debate but students are only permitted to compete in one event at the national tournament.

Other students making it to the final round of their events include:
Sarah Allen and Chloe An – Public Forum Debate
Collin Christner and Sydney Petersen – Public Forum Debate
Benjamin Collinger – International Extemporaneous Speaking
Sam Crowder and Mike Figenshau – Policy Debate
Miriam Hauptman – Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
Haohang Xu – Original Oratory

Team Honors:
Leading Chapter Award
Interpretation Sweepstakes, 3rd place
Overall Sweepstakes, 1st place

The national tournament will take place in Birmingham, Alabama in mid-June.

On Thursday, April 9, 2013, Julie Tristan of KSDK’s Show Me St. Louis interviewed LMS students Ande Siegel and Menea Kefalov for winning first place in the Creating Original Music Project (COMP) for the third year in a row.  The segment, featuring Ande and Menea singing their song “This Generation,” appeared on Show Me St. Louis at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 11 on KSDK Channel 5.

Included with their first place award is a $1,000 donation from the University of Missouri, sponsor of the competition, to the Ladue Middle Schools music department.

Link to the segment.

The following students competed in the DECA State Career Development Conference and qualified for the DECA International Career Development Conference:Juniors:Hannah Harpole – First in State / Principles of Hospitality & Tourism

Katie O’Brien – Sixth in State / Business Finance

Senior:
Ben Brotherton – Eighth in State / Sports & Entertainment Management

The DECA State CDC consisted of 178 different school districts in the the State of MIssouri.  DECA advisor and practical arts teacher Frances Erwin led the team. The International CDC will be held on April 23 – 28, 2013 in Anaheim, California, with Hannah Harpole and Katie O’Brein competing.

On April 25, 2013, Ladue Horton Watkins High School honored many outstanding seniors at the annual Senior Awards Program.  Of special note, Samantha Shanker was the recipient of the faculty’s Scholarship Leadership and Service Award and Jeet Das was the recipient of the Dads Club Scholarship.   See the complete list of all Senior Award recipients.

Abhay Cashikar, Ryan Cox and Emma Ross, all seventh-graders at Ladue Middle School, received a Blue Ribbon at the Academy of Science – St. Louis Science Fair for their project: “Injuries in Middle School Sports.”

The Ladue Horton Watkins High School Scholar Bowl team is currently ranked number one in the country and will be heading off to two national competitions.  The first is in Atlanta on Memorial Day weekend (May 25-27, 2013.)  The second is in Maryland from June 7-0, 2013.

The weekend of May 18-19, 2013, the Ladue Horton Watkins High School Science Olympiad Team traveled to Dayton Ohio to compete in the National Science Olympiad Tournament. Sixty teams from across the country, and a visiting team from Japan, competed in 23 events which included building a robot arm, building an elastic launched glider, astronomy, anatomy, a chemistry laboratory, a circuit laboratory, plus many more.

The team placed in the top 10 in four of the events, receiving medals in Disease Detectives (Max Schindler and Haohang Xu) and Materials Science (Enze Chen and Runpeng Liu). We are so proud of the following students for their dedication and contributions to the team:

Chloe An
Enze Chen
Collin Christner
Emily Chu
Jialin Ding
Runpeng Liu
Yang Liu
Allison Loynd
Michael Prablek
Rasika Sant
Max Schindler
Kisan Thakkar
Haohang Xu
Ben Zhang
Eric Zhu
Toby Zhu

The Ladue Middle School Science Olympiad had a great showing at the National Science Olympiad Competition, held on May 18, 2013 in Fairborn, Ohio. The students competed against the top 60 teams from across the country. Ladue Middle School students placed in two events, Sounds of Music (3rd) and Write It Do It (5th). Overall the team earned 22nd place. We are very proud of the dedication and hard work of the following students:

Philip Adams
Luke Biernbaum (Sounds of Music)
Hans Chan (Write It Do It)
Justin Chen
Albert Liu (Write It Do It)
Annie Liu
Tom Liu
Wil Michael
Patrick Naughton
Seema Patil
Kate Prablek
Sahana Raju
Sasha Rice
Ezra Umen
Audrey Wang
Jeffrey Wang
Stephanie Zhong (Sounds of Music)

Competition Includes Both Public and Private High Schools  

On May 25 and 26, 2013, Ladue Horton Watkins High School’s (LHWHS) Scholar Bowl Team (A) earned second place among 256 teams in a national high school quiz bowl amongst a leading pack of schools dominated by private, parochial and academic magnet schools.  The next public high school is listed seventh – Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD, and the next is in the eleventh position – Dorman High School in Roebuck, SC.

LHWHS’s Scholar Bowl Team (A) is made up of two recent 2013 graduates, Max Schindler and Haohang Xu, and two juniors, Ben Zhang and Jialin Ding.  Schindler will attend the University of Chicago this fall and Xu will attend Yale University.  The LHWHS Scholar Bowl Team (B) finished 21^st  among the 256 teams competing and includes one senior, David Abraham, who will also attend the University of Chicago, and juniors Kisan Thakkar, Enze Chen and Sam Crowder.

Social studies teachers Mike Hill and Jeff Miller coach the two teams and look forward to reporting the results from two additional upcoming national competitions in June, the next one being held June 7-9, 2013 at the University of Maryland.

“On many levels, our community should be very proud of the performance of these students,” explains Coach Mike Hill.  “Achieving second in the national is quite an accomplishment, and to do it as a public high school amongst schools across the nation who pick and choose their students is nothing short of amazing.  On top of this, Max Schindler is literally known across the nation for his incredible intelligence and ability to excel in these competitions.”  Schindler recently earned the honor to be one of three people in the nation to represent the U.S. in the International Linguistics Olympiad in Manchester, England, in July 2013.

Even before the final round of the National All-Star Academic Tournament was played, team member and recent graduate, Max Schindler, had already come out on top.  Schindler was named National High School Player of the Year, and was named a member of the National High School A Team along with four other players from across the country.  Ladue Horton Watkins High School’s Scholar Bowl Team went on to take first place in the National All-Star Academic Tournament played in Columbus, Ohio on June 15-16, 2013.  

(See National History Bee and Bowl, LLC Press Release for additional information.)

Schindler’s competitions are not over for the summer, however.  He will be representing the United States in the International  Computational Linguistics tournament in Manchester, England in July 2013.  In the fall, Schindler will attend the University of Chicago.

This culminates an outstanding year for the high school’s Scholar Bowl team who also finished first at the National Scholastics Championship in College Park, MD on June 9, 2013 and finished second at the National Academic Quiz Tournaments High School National Championship on May 26, 2013.

The team is coached by LHWHS social studies teachers Mike Hill and Jeff Miller. “On many levels, our community should be very proud of the performance of these students,” explains Hill.  “Achieving first in two national competitions is quite an accomplishment, and to do it as a public high school amongst schools across the nation who pick and choose their students is nothing short of amazing.  On top of this, Max Schindler is literally known across the nation for his incredible intelligence and ability to excel in these competitions.”

Ladue Horton Watkins High School was represented by six students at the National Forensic League’s National Tournament in Birmingham, Alabama. The tournament is a grueling week of competition from morning until evening with practice rounds and preparation for the next day at night.

Below are the Ladue students who attended and their main event:
Sarah Allen – United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Chloe An – United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Collin Christner and Sydney Petersen – Duo Interpretation
Jerome Gregory – Original Oratory
Haohang Xu – Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Sarah Allen and Jerome Gregory were both Top 30 (quarterfinalists) in their main events. The original competitor pools were over 200 students per event so to make it to the top 30 speaks to their hard work and excellence. Sarah and Jerome were both 15th in their main event – one spot shy of being a semifinalist.

Once students are eliminated from their main event, the tournament provides supplemental and consolation events for students.

Haohang Xu made it through 10 rounds of Extemporaneous Debate which places her in the Top 50 — the original competition pool was over 800 students!

Sarah Allen was semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking.

Jerome Gregory was a finalist in Impromptu Speaking. He was recognized at the national awards ceremony and placed 3rd in the nation! This is the best finish for a Ladue student in about five years!

The national tournament ended a wonderful year of competition for the speech and debate team. The team is gearing up for the 2013-2014 tournament season which begins the 28th of September!

June 16, 2013

Columbus, OH –  The fourth annual National Academic All-Star Tournament ended at Ohio State University today with the state of Missouri defeating Texas in the final match to claim the championship.

NASAT is a season-ending academic quizbowl event in which all-star teams from different U.S. states square off for the national championship.

Team Missouri members Max Schindler, Ben Zhang, Jialin Ding, and Haohang Xu emerged in first place after two days of intense competition on questions of a collegiate-level difficulty covering topics including literature, history, science, art, religion, philosophy, current events, and geography of the U.S. and the entire world.

Though all the other states in the field combined top students from multiple schools to form their all-star teams, Missouri chose to send the lineup from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis, MO as its representative. The decision by the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance, which selects the team each year, to go with a single-school lineup for the first time was vindicated when the Missouri team defeated multi-school all-star teams from twelve other states to take the title.

“This is only the second time in the four years of the competition that the four best players in a state have all come from one school,” said Matt Weiner, chairman of HSAPQ. “To be able to defeat such incredible all-star teams as we saw this year, on questions that go well beyond the high school curriculum, is a testament to the hard work that the students from Ladue put in.”

Missouri’s correct responses in the championship match with Texas included questions on the anthropologist Clifford Geertz, Caribbean poet Aime Cesaire, recent events involving the International Monetary Fund, the geography of Kenya, and infrared spectroscopy, a chemistry lab technique.

Texas finished second in this year’s competition, with California taking third place and Ohio fourth. The previous winners of the tournament were Pennsylvania (2010), Texas (2011), and California (2012).

About NASAT

The National Academic All-Star Tournament is a season-ending academic quizbowl event in which all-star teams from different U.S. states square off for the national championship. It is the most challenging high school tournament of the year, not only featuring questions of a very high difficulty level but also being the only tournament which allows all-star teams from multiple schools. This year’s tournament drew teams from Missouri, Texas, California, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Indiana, and Minnesota. Statistics for this year’s tournament may be found at http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/1432/stats/combined/standings/.

About HSAPQ

High School Academic Pyramid Questions provides question sets to quizbowl competitions across North America, including the official state championships of Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan, as well as the National History Bee & Bowl.

For more information, contact HSAPQ chairman Matt Weiner at:

mattweiner@hsapq.com

(804) 651-7700

As published on the American Chemical Society Website…

U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad program would like to proudly announce the success of the Alpha Zeta Team at the 45th International Chemistry Olympiad competition, which concluded July 23, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.

U.S. Team students:  Saaket Agrawal, Mira Loma High School, CA, Silver medal, David Liang, Carmel High School, IN, Gold medal, Runpeng Liu, Ladue Horton Watkins High School, MO, Gold medal, Stephen Ting, Monta Vista High School, CA, Silver medal

The USA Team students competed against 291 students from 73 countries.

Congratulations to Team USA for this great achievement!

The U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad and the International Chemistry Olympiad are multi-tiered competitions that bring together the world’s most talented high school students to test their knowledge and skills in chemistry. Nations around the world conduct examinations to nominate the most high-performing students for the International Chemistry Olympiad.

Learn more about this competition on acs.org.

University of Missouri–St. Louis STARS program marks 25 years of mentoring aspiring scientists

                Nearly 90 students participated in the program

For many of the participants, working in labs with top scientists as part of the Students and Teachers as Research Scientists program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, is the most important event in their decision to pursue a career in science.

This summer marked the 25th year of the program. Ken Mares, who has been director of the STARS program for the past 20 years, said it has progressed significantly since its inception.

“We now take a class of 88 students and have 65 mentors from four major research institutions providing precollegiate research opportunities for some of the most promising students in greater St. Louis.” Mares said.

The prestigious six-week summer science program, which ended July 19, pairs academically talented junior and senior high school students with top research mentors from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis and the host institution, UMSL.

Experts from the four institutions took on student apprentices in laboratories and directed them in research projects. Also, students attended lectures by nationally known scientists from the St. Louis science community, learned information concerning the higher education admission process and enjoyed social events such as bowling, a movie, an ice cream social, the St. Louis Symphony and a St. Louis Cardinals game.

This recent summer session included nearly 90 high school students from the St. Louis metro area, as well as Connecticut, Florida, Illinois and Greece.

UMSL Chancellor Tom George praised the program’s longevity and its efforts to increase the number of graduates in the STEM fields.

“For 25 years UMSL has been at the forefront of bolstering precollegiate scientific research in the St. Louis region,” he said. “Degrees in science, technology, math and engineering are needed more today than ever by American businesses wanting to stay competitive. The STARS program is vital in preparing a future STEM workforce.”

Keith Stine, professor of chemistry at UMSL, who marked his 10th summer as a STARS mentor, is a big fan of the program. He said the students are highly motivated and are looking to get the most they can out of the experience. It’s also a boon for the university, which gets to provide students a rare experience.

“It shows local area high school students how much research is going on at UMSL and how they can participate in it,” Stine said.

STARS is funded partially through LMI Aerospace/D3 Technologies, the Office of the Chancellor at UMSL, Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, Green Foundation and Solae.

The students for the 2013 STARS program are:

American Heritage School: Harshath Gupta
Anatolia College: Alexandra Koulousi, Maria-Angi Lalioti, Aliki Stogiannou
Centralia High School: Sruti Suresh
Chaminade College Preparatory School: Jack Yungbluth
Clayton High School: Momoko Oyama, Maxwell Sorensen, Shiori Tomatsu
Crossroads College Preparatory School: Benton Birch, Andrew Witherspoon
Eureka High School: Jessica Knobbe, Edgar Loaiza, Chester Montefering
Ft. Zumwalt East High School: Zachary Walters
Ft. Zumwalt South High School: Sathwik Katragadda, Tarun Vittal
Ft. Zumwalt West High School: Vinootna Sompalli
Francis Howell High School: Sachith Gamlath, Derek Koo, Varun Mohan
John Burroughs School: Emily Butka, Amanda Cao, Soomin Cho, Joanne Hsueh, Elizabeth Jackson, Zane Norton, Addison Ogonoski, Victoria Williams, Yueyi Zhao
Ladue Horton Watkins High School: Jacob Jacob, Sarah Jacob, Christine Yan, Yu Ze Zhu
Lafayette High School: Katherine Huang, Jeffrey Lu, Katriella Lumbantobing, Olivia Neumann, Anjana Renganathan, Kelly Storrs
Lindbergh High School: Claire Dang, Joshua Luthy
Maplewood-Richmond Heights High School: Brandon Moseley
Marquette High School: Suhas Bobba, Brian Ji, Susie Wang
Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School: Tilman Bartelsmeyer, Max Bernstein, Paul Dalton, Daniel Kaganov, John Li, Aimun Malik, Thomas Ristevski, Madison Wrobley
Missouri Academy: HaRim Kim
Notre Dame High School: Lucy Freitag
Parkway Central High School: Zhaochen Ji, Minki Kim, Greg Kosinski, Alexander Mesnier, Michael Wang, Haochen Xu
Parkway North High School: Valerie Irwin, Ellen Wang
Parkway South High School: Zhengjie Hu, Sumrah Khan
Parkway West High School: Sarah Breland, Neil Maitra, Benjamin Ratliff, Rigel Robinson
Pattonville High School: Denish Jaswal
Prospect High School: Apurva Belsare
St. Joseph’s Academy: Ashley Taylor
St. Louis Priory: Andrew Cammon, Christopher Chivetta, Matthew Kovac
Timberland High School: Ellen Gruebbeling
Villa Duchesne High School: Katelyn Billings, Anna Coyle, Taylor Harris, Victoria Ip, Kayla Simon
Visitation Academy: Lilac Khojasteh, Jordan Small
Webster Groves High School: Darby Turner
Westminster Christian Academy: Ciarra Peters
Wilton High School: Evaline Xie

For more information contact Ken Mares at 314-516-6155 or maresk@umsl.edu.

As provided by the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra… 

The St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra has a 42-year history of educating the region’s top young musicians. Through participation in the Youth Orchestra, musicians develop skills that go beyond the concert hall, life lessons that may help them along whatever path they may choose. St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra musicians bring honor to their school and to St. Louis, serving as a symbol of what discipline, training, and passion may do for young people. Acceptance into this orchestra is a huge accomplishment for any young musician. 

For many young children, music education begins in their school music programs. It is in part because of the support of passionate music educators such as Mr. Lindhurst and Mrs. Dalbey and their continued support of music that Anna has won a position in the most prestigious nonprofessional orchestra for young musicians in the St. Louis region.

Teenage scientists earn research awards from University of Missouri–St. Louis STARS program

                Nearly 90 students participated in the STARS program

Thirty-five aspiring scientists who spent six weeks this summer conducting intensive research with St. Louis-area professors have earned research rewards.

The students have been named winners of the LMI Aerospace Inc./D3 Technologies Award for Excellence in Research. The award is presented to students who distinguished themselves during the 2013 Students and Teachers as Research Scientists program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. This year nearly 90 high school students participated in the program.

“We thank the teachers and mentors for dedicating their time and lending their expertise to the students of the STARS program,” said Ron Saks, president and chief executive officer, LMI Aerospace Inc. “The education the students receive while participating in STARS is so valuable to young people yearning for a memorable experience they can take with them for the rest of their lives. Many of us remember the teachers from a young age who provided that special spark at a time when we most needed it. Our hope is that the teachers and students at STARS received that gift this summer.”

STARS introduces rising high school juniors and seniors to the various aspects of the scientific enterprise as practiced by scientists in academic, private or corporate research institutions. UMSL partners with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur, Mo., Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis to provide research opportunities for the participants.

Experts from the four institutions took on student apprentices in laboratories and directed them in research projects. Also, students attended lectures by nationally known scientists from the St. Louis science community, learned information concerning the higher education admission process and enjoyed social events.

Following six weeks of research, the participants presented their research papers to their peers, parents and research mentors.

Senior scientists at UMSL, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Monsanto, LMI Aerospace Inc., and Confluence Life Sciences reviewed the papers. Winning papers best exemplified the following qualities: difficulty and complexity of research; appropriateness of the research methodology; findings; quality of writing; and overall quality of the research process.

Below is a complete listing of winners and their projects from the 2013 STARS program. Also listed are the winner’s school, the student’s mentor and the mentor’s university:

Apurva Belsare, Mount Prospect High School (Ill.), “Imaging tumors via one-step functionalization of commercially available NIR dye by click reaction.” Samuel Achilefu, Washington University

Katelyn Billings, Villa Duchesne, “Ascorbate recycling in cultured muscle cells.” Jonathan Fisher, Saint Louis University

Andrew Cammon, Saint Louis Priory School, “Selectivity of artificial antibodies based on molecularly imprinted siloxane copolymers.” Srikanth Singamaneni, Washington University

Amanda Cao, John Burroughs School, “Study of the efficiency of new promoters to improve transgene expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.” James Umen, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Christopher Chivetta, Saint Louis Priory School, “System modeling of chemical looping with oxygen uncoupling (CLOU).” Ramesh Agarwal, Washington University

Anna Coyle, Villa Duchesne, “Thermodynamic characterization of naphthalimide derivatives complexed with nucleic acids.” Brent Znosko, Saint Louis University

Lucy Freitag, Notre Dame, “Spectroscopic assays analyzing the redox activities of NAD+ and FAD when bound to aptamers.” Dana Baum, Saint Louis University

Sachith Gamlath, Francis Howell High School, “Selectivity of artificial antibodies based on molecularly imprinted siloxane copolymers.” Srikanth Singamaneni, Washington University

Elle Gruebbeling, Timberland High School, “Testing the conservation of circadian clock genes in Arabidopsis thaliana and Setaria viridis.” Dmitri Nusinow, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Harshath Gupta, American Heritage School (FL), “Proliferative effects of DIAPH2 knockdown in multiple myeloma.” Michael Tomasson, Washington University

Sarah Jacob, Ladue Horton Watkins High School, “Plexin signaling and axon guidance in zebrafish.” Mark Voigt, Saint Louis University

Denish Jaswal, Pattonville High School, “The role of cations in the structural stability of a potassium channel.” Decha Enkvetchakul, Saint Louis University

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Brian Ji, Marquette High School, “Synthesis of nickel and zinc substituted delta-MnO₂ and hexagonal birnessite.” Jeffrey Catalano, Washington University

Claire Ji, Parkway Central High School, “The effect of chemically doped bioactive glass on neuronal survival.” Amy Harkins, Saint Louis University.

Daniel Kaganov, Mary Institute Country Day School, “Assessment of metalloprobes in live human epidermal carcinoma cells.” Vijay Sharma, Washington University

Sumrah Khan, Parkway South High School, “Characterizing serum iron binding proteins: is there a unique form of ferritin?” Robert Fleming, Saint Louis University

Sabrina Ha Rim Kim, Missouri Academy, “Behavioral measures in assessment of a rodent model of Parkinson’s Disease.” Michael Anch, Saint Louis University

Matthew Kovac, Saint Louis Priory School, “Computational measurements of guanine-substituted naphthalene.” Mike Lewis, Saint Louis University

Mariagni Lalioti, Anatolia College (Greece), “In vivo analysis of membrane-anchored ubiquitin-fold protein (MUB) function in Arabidopsis thaliana.” Brian Downes, Saint Louis University

Jeffrey Lu, Lafayette High School, “Thermodynamic characterization of naphthalimide derivatives complexed with nucleic acids.” Brent Znosko, Saint Louis University

Kaela Lumbantobing, Lafayette High School, “Automated color harmonization and fractal geometry.” Henry Kang, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Joshua Luthy, Lindbergh High School, “Observing electronic spectra of diatomic molecules such as zirconium carbide (ZrC) using high resolution Fourier transform spectroscopy.” James O’Brien and Leah O’Brien, University of Missouri-St. Louis and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

Aimun Malik, Mary Institute Country Day School, “Extraction of battery parameters for optimal performance using the non-linear circuit model with a multi-objective genetic algorithm.” Ramesh Agarwal, Washington University

Alexander Mesnier, Parkway Central High School, “Detection of carcinoembryonicaAntigen through the use of localized surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy.” Keith Stine, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Varun Mohan, Francis Howell High School, “Enzymatic activity and kinetics of calcium-independent phospholipase A₂.” Sergey Korolev, Saint Louis University

Addison Ogonoski, John Burroughs School, “The effect of list-wide congruency repetition on cognitive control in the Stroop task.” David Balota, Washington University

Ciarra Peters, Westminster Christian Academy, “Construction and testing of anisotropic white matter tissue mimics: a tool for the study of traumatic brain injury.” Ruth Okamoto, Washington University

Benjamin Ratliff, Parkway West High School, “Effects of GLUT1-T478 and p38 mitogen activated kinase on GLUT1-mediated transport and reactive oxygen species in cultured muscle cells.” Jonathan Fisher, Saint Louis University

Aliki Stogiannou, Anatolia College (Greece), “Occurrence of soil bacteria that participate in the nitrogen cycle.” Blythe Janowiak, Saint Louis University

Shiori Tomatsu, Clayton High School, “26S proteasome inhibition in aggregation of the protein antitrypsin.” Dorota Skowyra, Saint Louis University

Darby Turner, Webster Groves High School, “Variance in the clinical phenotype of siblings with hypophosphatasia.” Steve Mumm, Washington University

Ellen Wang, Parkway North High School, “Investigation of the genetic transmission of the AtGLE1 mutation and its effect on embryogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.” Wenyan Xiao, Saint Louis University

Victoria Williams, John Burroughs School, “The association between awd and echinoid in Drosophila.” Susan Spencer, Saint Louis University

Andrew Witherspoon, Crossroads College Preparatory School, “Changes in workers’ resilience following a tornado: a survey of hospital personnel in Joplin, Missouri.” Terri Rebmann, Saint Louis University

Emily Yueyi Zhao, John Burroughs School, “Correlation between past 1 and echinoid in Drosophila.” Susan Spencer, Saint Louis University

In October 2013, Ladue Horton Watkins High School (LHWHS)  juniors Aaron Bry and Danielle Thompson published an article and a photo, respectively, about LHWHS’ girls field hockey team in the second edition of Gateway Varsity Sports, a local magazine featuring area high school sports.  

On October 12, 2013, Spoede Elementary School clinched its first chess tournament of the year.  Only four Spoede Elementary School players were able to participate at the tournament, held at Crossroads Preparatory School.  However, the team was still able to outperform some of the top rated schools in St. Louis.  Overall, there were 152 students participating K-6, with 10 schools represented.

Pictured here:  Anderson Dai, Sahil Chatwal, Roshen Chatwal and Benjamin Liu

The Ladue Horton Watkins High School speech and debate team, the Talking Rams, competed in the Oakville Events Round Robin hosted by Oakville High School on Friday, November 1. 2013 and the Brentwood Debate Round Robin hosted by Brentwood High School on Saturday, November 2, 2013.

The round robin style of competition presented unique challenges to the speech and debate team as the team usually competes in tournament-style competitions. However, due to hard work and dedicated preparation, many students found success at both round robins!

Varsity Events
- Renee Colby: 3rd place, Poetry Interpretation; 6th place, Humorous Interpretation
- Benjamin Collinger: 8th place, International Extemporaneous Speaking
- Simi Falako: 8th place, Original Oratory
- Jacob Granick: 2nd place, Congressional Debate
- Shira Morosohk: 7th place, Original Oratory
- Tushar Raj: 6th place, Original Oratory
- Rasika Sant: 2nd place, Prose Interpretation; 5th place, Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
- Ben Zhang: 3rd place, Congressional Debate
- Elaine Zhang: 4th place, Poetry Interpretation; 5th place, Radio Speaking

Novice Events
- Noah DiAntonio: 2nd place, Radio Speaking
- Larisa Koyen: 7th place, Prose/Poetry Interpretation
- David Song: 7th place, Radio Speaking

Varsity Debate
- Huayu Gao: 7th place, Lincoln-Douglas Debate
- Jacob Granick and Bobby Zitzmann: 6th place, Public Forum Debate

Novice Debate
- Noah DiAntonio and Maya Mutic: 7th place, Policy Debate
- Larisa Koyen: 6th place, Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Next weekend the team will compete in a mini one-day tournament sponsored by the Greater Saint Louis Speech Association before hosting the Ladue Novice Invitational at Ladue Horton Watkins High School November 15-16, 2013.

Carter Reynolds, a kindergartener at Conway Elementary School, was recently seen dancing on television, in a KSDK story about a dancing class for children with cerebral palsy.  Both Carter, and his mother Shelly Reynolds, are interviewed in this heartwarming and inspiring story.