International Students

On September 9, officials from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of students selected as Semifinalists in the 66th Annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Oakwood High School Seniors Shayan Daijavad, Kate Jackson, and Konark Vinod have been selected as National Merit Scholar Semifinalists this year. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Kate Jackson whose Science Fair project titled, "Finding Fibonacci: Does separating leaves by the Fibonacci Golden Angle optimize average sun exposure per leaf?" received an Honorable Mention award in the Biological Science & Engineering category at the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science & Technology Championship which moved to a Virtual Model this year. Kate's project had previously placed 2nd at the South Valley Science Fair, an event at which Oakwood was also recognized by being awarded "Best School." Congratulations Kate!

Oakwood High School senior Valerie Doan is one of two local college-bound women who will receive scholarships this year from P.E.O. Chapter WJ in Morgan Hill. The scholarship selection is based on academic achievement, strength of character, non-scholastic activities and financial need. Morgan Hill Chapter WJ is one of 3 P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization) chapters in the South Bay region. P.E.O., www.peointernational.org , which provides financial aid to women worldwide for undergraduate and graduate studies, has been a pioneering force for women's education since 1869. Congratulations, Valerie!

The South Valley Science and Engineering Fair took place on February 8-9, at Christopher High School, in Gilroy. In addition to the eighteen Oakwood students that received top awards in the competition, sweeping all categories in the High School division, Oakwood School won the Best School award! Read more to view winners list.

Oakwood's 4th, 5th, and 6th grade robotics team, Techie Pizza, continues to make progress in preparing for regional championships that will occur March 7th at the Northern California FIRST LEGO League Innovation Expo.

During the regular season, the team was challenged to identify a problem with a building or public space in their community and chose the problem of rental scooters ridden illegally on sidewalks. While scooters are environmentally friendly and convenient, pedestrians are being injured and even killed. The team employed an accelerometer and demonstrated that scooters operated on streets and sidewalks produced different vibration patterns.

Now, the team has modified an electric scooter to prototype and prove their solution. They adapted the scooter's drive electronics and used CAD to design an enclosure into which they have installed a small computer and sensors. They have written software to gather accelerometer data and are training machine learning models to automatically tell the difference between sidewalks and streets. They hope to produce software that can be installed onto existing rental scooters that will slow down and sound alarms to encourage users to avoid riding on the sidewalk.

The Oakwood 7th Grade FIRST LEGO League team, Poison Oak, competed in the Peninsula Championship on Sunday December 15 at St. Francis School in Mountain View. The top 40 teams from 8 regional Qualifying Tournaments were invited to the Championship. Poison Oak bettered their Robot Game score from 195 in the Qualifying Tournament to 260 in the Championship. They also received a 2nd Place Award in the Alliance Round where they collaborated with another team (Team Chimera, a team they befriended during the Amazon Qualifier) to run missions jointly with each team's robot completing some of the missions. Not bad for the rookie team in their first year of competition!

On November 11th, the Oakwood High School Astronomy Club and Class set up an observation party for the rare transit of Mercury. Students and faculty stopped by to safely view the sun in three different ways: solar glasses, a magnified projection of the sun, and a look through the solar telescope! Mercury appeared as a tiny black dot on the face of the sun and took several hours to complete its transit. This event got the school excited about astronomy and left students in awe of the scale of our solar system. It also fits in nicely with Oakwood's 2019-2020 Year in Space theme and the ARISS contact happening in Spring 2020.

Congratulations to Company 34, a team of third and forth grade students, who received a Construction Innovation award at the NorCal FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Junior Expo, held at the SJSU Event Center, on March 29th. Oakwood students in first through fourth grade had the opportunity to participate in the FIRST LEGO League Junior this year. The students have been working with LEGO WeDo robotics systems to solve problems related to lunar habitation. In this after school program coached by parent volunteers and Principal Shales, team members learned to build and program robotic models, and explored space travel and lunar settlements. The season culminated with the construction of each team's own motorized moon base and presentation poster. Oakwood's first grade (First Grade Boys Rock) and second grade (Misters and Miss Moon) teams presented their successful Mission Moon projects at Oakwood School. Well done students!

Oakwood's Math Counts Team of Shrihan Dash, Daniel Lelescu, Lee Stilwell and Ayana Wilmot competed at the Northern California State Math Counts Competition. They worked to solve challenging problems with over 200 competitors representing schools from Pacific Grove to Redding. They completed 4 rounds of individual and team questions and earned a spot in Oakwood history as the first team to advance to the State competition. Congratulations!