Local High School Students Excel at Physics Competition
Honesdale High School's Team Two placed first in the team competition at The University of Scranton’s annual Hayes Family Science Competition for High School Physics and Engineering Students. Seated from left: Rachel Frissell, faculty specialist for the University’s Physics and Engineering Department; team coach Rebecca Kretschmer; and team member Vera Downey. Standing are team members: Liam Miller, Christian Sandman, Zach Meagher, Jesse Balsam, Rylan Montgomery and Jonathan Cooley.Competition and hands-on experience are not always part of the academic curriculum in high school.
That is partly why The University of Scranton’s Hayes Family Science Competition is such a big hit with the dozen high schools and nearly 200 potential engineers and scientists who participated in this year’s event at the Byron Center.
“This is a super cool experience for prospective students because it allows them to get a taste of what engineering looks like and see if this is really what they want to do,” said Evan Hromisin, Dallas, who is majoring in electrical engineering at the University. “Especially when I was in high school, I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do. Having opportunities to get your hands on some real-world engineering principles and test out your knowledge is a good way to get excited about going into engineering once you graduate high school.”
Hromisin was one of 30-plus University of Scranton students who helped instruct parts of the April 10 event, which included challenges related to concepts including energy, gravitation, kinematics and momentum. Among the day’s highlights was a Jeopardy-style trivia game — won by North Pocono High School’s Christian Segiel, who edged second- and third-place Sean Rossi and Luke Joseph, both of Crestwood High School — and an exercise in which Majid Mokhtari, senior laboratory engineer, engineered a mechanical arm to shoot a basketball through a hoop; Mokhtari’s robotic arms made all three shots it attempted.
Results from the day included Honesdale High School team two winning the overall team competition, aided by a pair of second-place finishes in the induction and collision competitions. Members of the winning team were: Jesse Balsam, Jonathan Cooley, Vera Downey, Zach Meagher, Liam Miller, Rylan Montgomery and Christian Sandman. Rebecca Kretschmer was their coach.
Berwick Gold, which won the buoyancy and media events, finished second overall. Members of the team placing second were: Christopher Bowman, Makayla Brown, Jack Kendron, Derek Moss and Nicholas Uram. Matthew Shrader was their coach.
North Pocono Red, which won the induction competition, placed third overall. Members of the third-place team were: Dillon Brace, Joe DiMattio, Justin Fontanella, Daniel Guglielmo, Kyle Mizenko, Allison Rocco and Christian Segiel. John Croom was their coach.
Additional media coverage of this year's Hayes Family Science Competition can be found on FOX 56 and WNEP.
