IMSA science squad ready for nationals

A team of science-minded students at Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora will be heading to Washington, D.C., this week to participate in the 22nd annual National Science Bowl.

Like a sports team composed of athletes gifted at different positions, IMSA’s science bowl team includes five students — all seniors — who star in biology, chemistry, physics, earth science and math, coach Peter Clancy said.

“You want to try to get people who are strong in the subject areas,” he said.

While IMSA is an established place for scientific learning, celebrating its 25th year, the science bowl team is relatively new.

“This is only our third year and it will be our second trip to Nationals in the three years,” Clancy said.

The team formed when two students approached Clancy during the 2009-10 school year. They had participated on science bowl teams at their “home schools,” where they went as freshmen before coming to IMSA as sophomores, Clancy said, and they wanted to continue with the competitions.

When the team heads to nationals for competition Thursday to Monday, April 26 to 30, members will be quizzed Jeopardy-style in a round-robin tournament, with the top two teams in each division heading to the double-elimination final round, Clancy said.

Preparing to face the questions — for example, “Rounding g to the first decimal place, how many newtons are required to keep a 120-kilogram sled moving at a constant velocity across a pond if there is a frictional coefficient of 0.20 between the sled and the pond’s surface? Round your answer to the nearest whole number.” — are IMSA students Webster Guan, Peter Lu, Nolan Maloney, Eric Ordonez and Jorge Quero.

Here’s a rundown of the Science Bowl roster, presented as edited versions of student-written bios:

Webster Guan

Webster Guan plans on going to some form of college, given that colleges don’t continually defer him.

Although he does do schoolwork and osmoses scientific knowledge from books, his accomplishments include being part of the “10 million club” in (the video game) Temple Run and internationally ranked in Tetris Ultra.

He plays on IMSA’s most accomplished sports team: reigning Illinois state champion Scholastic Bowl team. Less impressively, he plays on the IMSA varsity volleyball team.

Peter Lu

Peter Lu has been participating in Science Bowl for four years. He enjoys studying physics, doing research and working on projects for Science Olympiad. He will probably be attending Harvard next year and hopes to become a scientific researcher.

Outside of school, he enjoys eating pizza, playing piano or using his (electronic) keyboard to compose. His enjoys a variety of music, from classical works and film scores to K-Pop, and his favorite vegetables are potatoes.

Nolan Maloney

Nolan Maloney is captain of IMSA’s Science Bowl team, and this is his third appearance at the National Science Bowl.

Besides Science Bowl, Nolan also participates in Science Olympiad (where he looks at rocks), Scholastic Bowl and, last year, he attended the U.S. Chemistry camp. He is most interested in chemistry and biology and intends on studying chemistry or chemical engineering in college.

After studying Chinese for three years in high school, another of his goals is to become a fluent speaker while in college. Someday, he hopes to pursue a career in scientific research or medicine.

Outside of school, Nolan is a competitive tennis player, a Ping-Pong enthusiast, and, as of February, is at the top of the leader board for Temple Run scores at IMSA.

Eric Ordonez

Prior to transferring to IMSA in 2009, Eric Ordonez spent his freshman year at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora.

He has a tendency to speak in spoonerisms and deliberately misspell and mispronounce words.

In addition to Science Bowl, Eric is a member of IMSA’s varsity Scholastic Bowl team, which is currently defending a state championship. He is also a co-president of IMSA’s Asian heritage club that seeks to foster awareness of Chinese, Korean, and Filipino heritages. It is no coincidence, Eric is an avid fan of K-Pop and knows various K-Pop dances.

After high school, he plans to major in chemical engineering and physics, with an emphasis in research. His career plans are not strictly limited to technical work, as he is also considering becoming a teacher.

Besides being the stereotypical science geek, Eric also enjoys classical music, playing Temple Run and long walks on the beach.

Jorge Quero

Jorge Quero’s primary interests include video game design, mathematics and weightlifting. His favorite academic subjects at IMSA are math and physics, and he plans to earn a dual major in mathematics and computer science in college.

He is also interested in languages, being a native Spanish speaker and, currently, a motivated Japanese student. Additionally, he is a passionate fan of Korean music, or K-Pop, and has recently taught himself to read Korean (Hangeul).

Nevertheless, he pays attention to English, gradually expanding and exercising his vocabulary. All of this is because Jorge greatly values and thrives through accumulation of knowledge, which accounts for his enthusiasm for Science Bowl.