Blair Intel Science Winner

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Blair magnet has always attracted some of the best and brightest from more affluent areas and their already Good schools to the eastern part of MoCo which was the whole point of the magnate program. That said the magnat program has little in common with the rest of the school other than proping up its test scores to the point Blair parents think their kids are getting an an above ave education. What is Blair now on great schools and 8? It would most likely be a 5-6 without the influx of out of area talent that never really mingles with the local kids.

The winner would have been bright and even if he went to his home school of Walter Johnson. There is a reason there is no magnate program at Whitman, just saying.

Most of Whitman is a magnate program.

(Congratulations, PP, on a particularly apt autocorrect.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the outcomes for prior winners/finalists, the contest (westinghouse then intel) has quite an amazing predictive track record. Eight went on to receive Nobel Prizes, two earned the Fields Medal, five have been awarded the National Medal of Science, twelve received MacArthur Fellowships; 56 have been named Sloan Research Fellows; 30 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences; and five have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. As a scientist I too was somewhat dubious about most projects really consisting of a set of experiments or ideas being handed to the students by a PI or a grad student, but somehow the judges manage to cull the students who are truly innovative and talented from the general pool of kids working in their next door neighbor's lab at NIH!

Blair magnet has always attracted some of the best and brightest from more affluent areas and their already Good schools to the eastern part of MoCo which was the whole point of the magnate program. That said the magnat program has little in common with the rest of the school other than proping up its test scores to the point Blair parents think their kids are getting an an above ave education. What is Blair now on great schools and 8? It would most likely be a 5-6 without the influx of out of area talent that never really mingles with the local kids.

The winner would have been bright and even if he went to his home school of Walter Johnson. There is a reason there is no magnate program at Whitman, just saying.

There is indeed a magnate program at Whitman.

Re the Intel winner, it is not about being bright. It is about Blair's program and what students like him can do given those resources. If this were not so, there would be "bright" students from other schools winning at comparable rates. This has never been the case.

The reason there is no magnet program at other schools is that there are not enough qualified students in any given HS feeder area to make up such a program, Whitman included.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the outcomes for prior winners/finalists, the contest (westinghouse then intel) has quite an amazing predictive track record. Eight went on to receive Nobel Prizes, two earned the Fields Medal, five have been awarded the National Medal of Science, twelve received MacArthur Fellowships; 56 have been named Sloan Research Fellows; 30 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences; and five have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. As a scientist I too was somewhat dubious about most projects really consisting of a set of experiments or ideas being handed to the students by a PI or a grad student, but somehow the judges manage to cull the students who are truly innovative and talented from the general pool of kids working in their next door neighbor's lab at NIH!

Blair magnet has always attracted some of the best and brightest from more affluent areas and their already Good schools to the eastern part of MoCo which was the whole point of the magnate program. That said the magnat program has little in common with the rest of the school other than proping up its test scores to the point Blair parents think their kids are getting an an above ave education. What is Blair now on great schools and 8? It would most likely be a 5-6 without the influx of out of area talent that never really mingles with the local kids.

The winner would have been bright and even if he went to his home school of Walter Johnson. There is a reason there is no magnate program at Whitman, just saying.

There is indeed a magnate program at Whitman.

Re the Intel winner, it is not about being bright. It is about Blair's program and what students like him can do given those resources. If this were not so, there would be "bright" students from other schools winning at comparable rates. This has never been the case.

The reason there is no magnet program at other schools is that there are not enough qualified students in any given HS feeder area to make up such a program, Whitman included.

I agree which is why these programs are so special and hard to replicate. It's a combination of a fantastic curriculum, terrific teachers and students who are not just bright but committed enough to learning to deal with the intense work load and the commute. Blair's Intel track record speaks for itself- over the last fifteen years they have the most finalists in the country. Blair has produced over 30 finalists compared with third place school Thomas Jefferson School in Virginia with just 10. Whitman does not rank.

[Anonymous]

Unlike other schools Blair has a specific requirement known as the Senior Research Project where students are required to find a mentor and submit their work to well known competitions.

Whitman does not have that push. Other schools do not prioritize Intel the way Blair does.

While Blair may have many Intel winners other schools produce far more Nobel Prize winners and far more accomplished alumni. Stuyvesant comes to mind as does the Bronx High School of Science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair Intel Science
http://wapo.st/189OsT2

Hello...I'm a physicist and I have worked at UM where this student did. I cannot find anywhere what he actually did. The WaPo article says he did something in electron phonon interactions, but I don't understand what and these interactions have been studied since the '50's.

I am sure Mr. Winer is talented if Prof. Galiitski says so. I just don't understand how one can have an original idea in condensed matter theory and do all the supporting math in a couple of high school summers, and without any of the coursework that most condensed matter people take--solid state, QFT, etc.

My suspicion is that he helped out a grad student on some existing project, and the rest is hype.

I'll wait for the published article.

I am no physicist but how could someone have done all the math required of a theoretical project is such a short time? While I have no reason to doubt what this student did I think PP may have a point that most students "helped out a grad student on some existing project, and the rest is hype."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I am no physicist but how could someone have done all the math required of a theoretical project is such a short time? While I have no reason to doubt what this student did I think PP may have a point that most students "helped out a grad student on some existing project, and the rest is hype."

So you're not a physicist, but you have doubts about how a project in physics was done. And you have no reason to doubt the student, but you doubt the student.

Good grief. I would like to join the PPs who apologized to Michael Hofmann Winer's mother, on behalf of DCUM, about the Blair troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I am no physicist but how could someone have done all the math required of a theoretical project is such a short time? While I have no reason to doubt what this student did I think PP may have a point that most students "helped out a grad student on some existing project, and the rest is hype."

So you're not a physicist, but you have doubts about how a project in physics was done. And you have no reason to doubt the student, but you doubt the student.

Good grief. I would like to join the PPs who apologized to Michael Hofmann Winer's mother, on behalf of DCUM, about the Blair troll.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unlike other schools Blair has a specific requirement known as the Senior Research Project where students are required to find a mentor and submit their work to well known competitions.

Whitman does not have that push. Other schools do not prioritize Intel the way Blair does.

While Blair may have many Intel winners other schools produce far more Nobel Prize winners and far more accomplished alumni. Stuyvesant comes to mind as does the Bronx High School of Science.

Well of course the structure of the magnet program is a big part of their success. I take your point about Stuyvesant and Bronx - they can boast a dozen Nobel prize winners between themselves. However the "youngest" of their prize winners graduated from high school in the late 1960s. The Blair magnet program started in the mid 1980s - give their graduates a couple of decades to start to catch up!

[Anonymous]

As a Blair parent I am mystified by the troll who attacks anyone who tries to make a point by accusing them of being a "Blair troll."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a Blair parent I am mystified by the troll who attacks anyone who tries to make a point by accusing them of being a "Blair troll."

As a Blair parent, I...

As a Blair student, I...

As a physicist, I...

As a non-physicist, I...

What remarkable powers of self-transformation this poster has.

[Anonymous]

Blair has some talented supporters!! Must be a psychic to know that there is only one critic of Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blair has some talented supporters!! Must be a psychic to know that there is only one critic of Blair.

There can be many critics of Blair! But there is only one Blair troll on DCUM. Or possibly two, I'm still not sure.