Athletes of the Week: Brother and Sister Victor and Jessica Ho Image Caption By : H. J. Morrison : 9/26/07 San Leandro Times

This brother and sister team has one year to compete together. Victor Ho, a senior, has competed in the State Cross Country Championships, while his sister, Jessica Ho, a freshman, has already placed in four varsity races. Both atheletes attend Chinese Christian Schools and train with the help of their cross country coach Benny Fong. Victor is a veteran, having compted in last year’s state meet and winning the varsity boys race at the Farmer Invitational, medalling at the College Prep invite with 3rd place, and placing 9th at the Lagoon Valley Classic. His sister isn’t far behind. Jessica is already winning varsity medals at invitationals, highlighted by a 2nd place medal at College Prep, 9th place at Farmer, and 22nd place at Lagoon Valley. This year Victor and Jessica have a chance to win individual league championships in the Bay Counties League-East as brother and sister.

SAN LEANDRO - A group of Chinese Christian School first-graders listens to Catherina Chen read a book. But instead of just letting their teacher read, they ask questions and discuss parts of the story.
"To tag along means to follow," one student says while accessing his "BK," or background knowledge. Such terms roll naturally off the tongues of the 800 students at the school, where part of the curriculum encourages students to participate and express their ideas.
After Chen finishes the reading, students participate in "turn and talk," a brief session during which they share their thoughts.
"Our students think outside the box, and there's a reason why they think that way," said Debbie Leong, development director. "It's important that they feel safe when discussing their viewpoints and questions."
Reviewing material with one other is just one aspect of the strategies the campus uses to help students understand what they read. But one of the main things that keeps students interested is teachers allowing them to make a connection with what they read.
Chen uses this technique by encouraging students to read books that interest them. "It's important for them to find that personal connection with what they're reading," she said. "We want them to have ownership when it comes to reading."
The literacy practices begin at the early grade levels and continue up until high school graduation, said Gloria Ong, the high school principal. Chinese Christian Schools report that 100 percent of their high school graduates go on to college.

For more information on the K-12 school, visit http://www.ccs-rams.org or call (510) 351-4957.

Kristofer Noceda can be reached at (510) 293-2479 or knoceda@dailyreviewonline.com.

Annual high school event promotes competitive environment, camaraderie among teams

By: Chintan Desai Posted: 4/2/07 (The California Aggie Issue date: 4/2/07 Section: Science & Tech)

Hundreds of high school students, proudly donning their schools' brightly colored T-shirts and hats and accompanied by dozens of boisterous supporters, stormed the UC Davis campus armed with various custom robots for the 2007 FIRST Robotics Competition Davis Sacramento Regional on Mar. 30.
The university, host of the event for a third consecutive year, welcomed 39 high school teams from four states to the ARC Pavilion.
FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology, is an organization dedicated to encouraging young people to pursue careers in science and technology. It coordinates the annual robotics competition with regional events throughout the country and the FIRST Championship, which will be held in Atlanta's Georgia Dome from Apr. 12 to 14.
According to Randy Lam, on-site regional director of FIRST in Northern California, the event uses a sports model for a science-based competition.
In the process, students learn not only the principles of design and engineering, but also how to work as a team and the "gracious professionalism" the organization emphasizes between competitors.
"It's a competition that really provides those who aren't the athletes but rather those who exercise their brains more some recognition that they otherwise wouldn't have," Lam said.
In January, teams that signed up and paid the $6,000 entry fee for the competition received the same kit of equipment from which they built a robot designed to perform a specific task. Given six weeks to design, build and test their robots, teams finally were able to show off their finished products in one of 37 regional competitions held throughout the country during March.
This year's competition, called Rack 'N' Roll, involves two three-team alliances using their driver-controlled robots to score points by placing inner-tubes on the "spider legs" of a large rack placed in the center of a field. Points are earned and scored exponentially by the number of consecutive inner-tubes placed in a column or row on the rack.
However, teams were not awarded simply based on scoring the most points. According to Karen McDonald, UC Davis professor in the department of chemical engineering and regional programming chair of the competition, there were over 20 awards judges gave with criteria including the design of the robot and the robots' aesthetic appearances.
The Regional Chairman's Award, FIRST's most prestigious honor, has no relation to the competition itself, instead being granted to the team that made the best partnership effort among team participants.
According to McDonald, UC Davis decided to host the event because it acts as an effective recruiting tool of high school students, allowing them to see the campus and communicate with volunteers and staff from the university who coordinate it.
Both Lam and McDonald said they believe the competition provides a valuable opportunity for students interested in engineering to learn skills they wouldn't normally acquire in a classroom setting. Giving them a problem similar to one an engineer would face, the competition forces students to go through the design and engineering process, while making sure to cooperate with teammates and budget their resources and time.
Indeed, many students become obsessed with the robot-making process, to the point where they "eat, sleep, drink and dream robots for that six-week period," Lam said.
Dennis Lee, a senior from the Chinese Christian Schools in San Leandro, Calif., said he participated in the event because of his desire to pursue a career in mechanical engineering. His team, composed of between 30 to 40 people, was started this school year by Lee's teacher who noticed a booth displaying information on the competition.
The team then proceeded with support and fundraising efforts, writing letters to state representatives and the governor and applying and receiving grants from NASA to meet the steep entry fee.
Birch Fett, an instructor for the Darby High School team from Darby, Mont., considered the event a good hands-on experience for students.
Meeting for two hours every day after school, Fett said the students did the bulk of the work on the robots, while he and other instructors acted primarily as guides. "You can talk about stuff in the classroom, but this is where it is applied," he said.

CHINTAN DESAI can be reached at science@californiaaggie.com. c Copyright 2007 The California Aggie