By Cynthia Chin
East High School
February: Students in math classes collected $1,042.16 in the annual penny drive. Funds support the Engineering Club field trip and materials fund and the UW-Madison Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). This year’s EWB funds support a water distribution project in rural Guatemala. Learn more about this project at ewbuwmadison.weebly.com/Guatemala.
March 3: Two teams of students competed in the US-UK Mathworks Math Modeling Challenge. In just 14 hours, students researched and wrote a technical paper tracking and projecting growth in the sales of e-bikes, as well as the anticipated positive impacts on the carbon footprint of communities where the bicycles are heavily used. Congratulations to Ben Askling, Tessara Clark, Anika Derby, Emily Johnson, Logan Moua, Gabe Vloch, Adyleenah Shatz-Muzaffarr, and Dean Thao for being successful participants in this prestigious scholarship competition.
March 4: Two teams of Engineering Club students represented East at the all-state Kidwind Wisconsin meet, building wind turbines and learning about alternative energy careers. Joseph Anderson and Julian Svanoe competed with a prebuilt generator, while Levi Eberly, Aiden Schmiedlin, Christopher Teggatz and Ronan Tinnen built their own tower, generator and blades.
March 8: For the third year in a row, an East student placed onto the All State Team at the Wisconsin Math Council State Math Meet. Congratulations to Tessara Clark and her teammates: Ben Berkson, Henrik Carlson, Rossalyn Kiley, Molly Lenius, Logan Moua and Will Spetz.
March 16–20: In November the HiMCM team comprised of Megan Carpenter, Tessara Clark and Adyleenah Shatz-Muzaffar placed in the top 25% of more than 800 teams in international competition and were invited to represent the United States in the International Mathematical Modeling Competition in March. Joined by editor Logan Moua, the team created a ranking model for municipalities to use in determining best-use zoning and development practices for adjacent farm and forest lands.
April 3-23: Public voting for the Project Teen Money 2023 videos took place. East students Cooper Smith, Elsa Marley and Noel Knuth were finalists, with scholarship awards of at least $500 each. Final results were pending at press time. This year’s videos focused on helping teens avoid online financial scams targeting youth.
April 7: Students from East and the Madison College Early STEM Academy visited the UW-Campus, hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). They were treated to a day on campus, with admissions and college life Q&A and tours of the College of Engineering.
April 11: Astronomy Club members Bella Lawson and Dora Tvedt presented a model of the expanding universe to children and families at the Marquette Elementary Family Science Night. Engineering Club members Ethan Hirsch, Aiden Schmiedlin, Ronan Tinnen and Chris Teggatz helped visitors design their own zipline gliders and marble slalom runs.
April 25–26: The SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference was held at the Alliant Energy Center. Two East teams were in the Team Engineering Challenge: Aidan Benton, Quince Clark and Molly Lenius, and Aiden Schmiedlin, Christopher Teggatz and Jenkin Yang. Their task was to create a single projectile launcher capable of handling projectiles of multiple sizes and weights with accuracy and a minimum of wasted material. Students also created technical diagrams and an oral presentation within the contest time limits. The team of Yang, Schmiedlin and Teggatz placed third out of 80 teams statewide.
April 26: Ben Berkson, Henrik Carlson, Tessa Clark, Rossalyn Kiley and Molly Lenius participated in the international Purple Comet Math Meet. Results are pending at press time.