Board urges kids to try scientific academic programs

At the River Dell Board of Education meeting on Sept. 8, Superintendent Patrick Fletcher and Chemistry Teacher Carrie Jacobus highlighted the chemistry program at River Dell High School. The meeting spotlight was a way to encourage participation and raise awareness to students.

According to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition, students with scientific education are more likely to get better degrees and better jobs. According to the coalition, STEM occupations will grow 1.7 times faster than non-STEM occupations from 2008 to 2018.

This past spring, two teams from the high school won the New Jersey Chemistry Olympics and Fletcher said he wanted to highlight the "outstanding achievements" that the students made at the competition.

Fletcher described the Chemistry Olympics as an event better than the British Open or The Barclays referring to the premiere golfing events.

Two teams from RDHS, comprised of about 30 students, competed in approximately 10 events in the Chemistry Olympics. Both teams placed first and second in two categories in the academic competition.

"This is highly unusual to have two teams of one school come so close," said Jacobus. This is the fourth year we came in first place. It is kind of a feat to win so many medals."

Jacobus said the participating students were so dedicated to the science competition that they sometimes stayed at school until 10 p.m. to finish their experiments, research and projects.

Students presented research papers with up to 10 pages in length on their experiments, including an appendix, complete with American Chemical Society (ACS) citations.

Two groups did experiments on acid rain and its effect on the environment. Some students even made their own solar cells from scratch. They also did web page design on chemistry.

"We excel in building models," said Jacobus. "They did a replica of model to scale about prescription medication. It's a lot of fun and it's a lot of work. It's a tremendous amount of work."

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Board urges kids to try scientific academic programs