Blair HS - so many 2014 Intel Science finalists. Impressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy shit- look at the topics. Amazing.

http://student.societyforscience.org/intel-sts-2014-finalists

How did students get into such high-level topics? Do schools pair kids with mentors from local universities? How do they access the materials and content to do this? I am amazed and impressed! I wouldn't have known where to begin with a contest like this in high school, and I was an A student.

[Anonymous]

Not bad, for a magnet school. Thomas Jefferson had 6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why not post some awards non-magnet kids get. I know they get awards. It's like the magnet kids are the chosen ones. You should give a shout out to the rest.

PP, if you think that the non-magnet kids should get a shout out too, then by all means, you should give them a shout out! That would be great. Start a thread on awards won by non-magnet kids at Blair!

(I am not the OP, by the way.)

The magnet moms are cray cray... They have to post about their kids every month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blair does very well in selective college acceptances too, if the stats from the annual Bethesda mag table are any indication. No clue if that's all magnet or mostly magnet kids or proportional representation from all programs. Whatever the case, it's a school that obviously is known and respected where it matters, for good reason. (I'm not in the Blair district fwiw, I'm in BCC but would love to see my kids wind up in the science magnet program although doubt they will!)

I think SAM did a report and once you pull the magnet kids out it a very different picture, obviously. But the kids do very well, just not nationally recognizable. But other schools would do well too if they took a bunch of smart kids and plopped them into a specific school. It's basic math.

[Anonymous]

In your first two years at blair, you take double periods of chem, physics, biology,and earth sciences, along with computer science and 'Research'. Then your last two years, you have a faculty person advise you, and help you to get paired up with an investigator/academic...sometimes they are researchers at NIH, NIST, etc. etc. You work for them in the summer between junior and senior year, and meet with them periodically both years as you develop your project, under their guidance and mentorship.

This is how it used to be done, back in the 90s...we used to have a lot of westinghouse winners back then, now its intel...bottom line, we had a solid education prior to the research, and really great teachers and collaborators to guide us....it didn't just come out of thin air. They helped us through and through, as a good school with good teachers should.

Moco, and the blair magnet, is one of the best value educations you can get in this country.

- Blair magnet alumni, and now mommy to MoCo students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not bad, for a magnet school. Thomas Jefferson had 6.

Or 0 if you read the article. I wonder if TJ is falling victim to its own success and attracting kids who want to go to the best HS vs those with a real calling in STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is 3. Still, excellent.

Oops. Three of the 40 are from Blair and one from Frederick. And a whole ton of semifinalists from other maryland schools.

Something is going well over there (I live in DC).

Question - do private high schools generally not pursue this award agressively? Scanning the finalist list for the whole country, all the schools I recognize in other states are all public schools.

Blair has always done a bit better than Thomas Jefferson. TJ usually has more semi-finalists or finalists in raw numbers, but the Blair magnet is about 1/4 the size of TJ, so proportionately, Blair does a lot better.

Private schools in DC are full of lawyers' kids. They don't emphasize science the way a magnet school does. There are a lot of scientists in the area working for NIH and NIST in MoCo. They can't afford 60K per annum for two kids in private school, so they send their kids to MoCo public schools. Also, public schools have the deep pockets required for labs, equipment, salaries that entice teachers who know calculus etc. This disparity has been there since the Sputnik era.

[Anonymous]

Great for Blair, Montgomery County and Maryland. Way to go kids!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not bad, for a magnet school. Thomas Jefferson had 6.

No. Thomas Jefferson had zero finalists this year.

[Anonymous]

The students were from the Blair magnet program-a school within a school.

Take a look at their projects. It seems the magnet program has nothing to do with it. These are driven kids who will achieve anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In your first two years at blair, you take double periods of chem, physics, biology,and earth sciences, along with computer science and 'Research'. Then your last two years, you have a faculty person advise you, and help you to get paired up with an investigator/academic...sometimes they are researchers at NIH, NIST, etc. etc. You work for them in the summer between junior and senior year, and meet with them periodically both years as you develop your project, under their guidance and mentorship.

This is how it used to be done, back in the 90s...we used to have a lot of westinghouse winners back then, now its intel...bottom line, we had a solid education prior to the research, and really great teachers and collaborators to guide us....it didn't just come out of thin air. They helped us through and through, as a good school with good teachers should.

Moco, and the blair magnet, is one of the best value educations you can get in this country.

- Blair magnet alumni, and now mommy to MoCo students

This was BEFORE the math teachers left and they began assimilating the magnet into the regular school. Read the Silver Chips online edition about Starr's visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The students were from the Blair magnet program-a school within a school.

Take a look at their projects. It seems the magnet program has nothing to do with it. These are driven kids who will achieve anywhere.

Correction: it is less a school within a school than a decade ago. Zoned kids can take all magnet level classes, unlike before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The students were from the Blair magnet program-a school within a school.

Take a look at their projects. It seems the magnet program has nothing to do with it. These are driven kids who will achieve anywhere.

Correction: it is less a school within a school than a decade ago. Zoned kids can take all magnet level classes, unlike before.

True!!!!! The Intel performers may be the last hurrah of the old magnet program. RIP magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is great...and at a public school too! Just goes to show.

+1

That is fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy shit- look at the topics. Amazing.

http://student.societyforscience.org/intel-sts-2014-finalists

That is phenomenal. So impressed by ALL of these kids.