June 2, 2004

Presentation students take second place at state science fair

After winning the Grand Prize Alternate at the Synopsys Science and Engineering Fair at Great America this past April, Presentation students Kristin Barker and Kayla Ladd took their project to the California State Fair in Southern California and came home with a second place.

This is a first for Presentation High School, known more for its food drives, athletics and theater arts programs. A heightened interest in math and science coincided with the hiring of teacher Dr. John Howe a few years ago. He believed that women could succeed in these fields and he challenged the students to believe that, too.

A suggestion in math class that there was an opening in the Science Fair led to the interest and participation of these two young women. Kayla was interested in astronomy and Kristin leaned more toward astrophysics. They had never really spent time together other than in the Presentation’s theatrical production of “Hello Dolly.” But because the two fields they wanted to enter were similar and seemed to overlap, they joined forces.

For months Kristin and Kayla went to lectures and began reading college books on astronomy. They knew their joint effort would work when, on their first experiment together, they got the data they hoped for.

But they also admit that sometimes teamwork is hard. “There were challenges, not academically, but in terms of people believing in us. Our peers definitely doubted us. People never thought of us as ‘science people.’ There has always been a stereotype regarding women in science.”

Nine months later Kristin and Kayla entered the Synopsys Championship competing with other students from high schools all over the Bay Area.