Category: News

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts has received a $25,000 grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation to expand it arts education program.

The grant will be used to offer additional courses in life drawing, printmaking, flameworking, illustration, fiber design, and small metals and jewelry. Additional coursework in Modern Design and Crafts will include furniture and applied design, computer applications in art, 3D modeling and technology, construction and mechanical engineering.

There’s a meme floating around the Internet that says, “With the right music, you either forget everything or you remember everything.”

It may be a simplified view, but it reveals how we feel about music — or perhaps more appropriately, how music makes us feel. A song may bring back a happy memory. It may help us cope with a sad moment. It may relieve stress or help us better focus on a task at hand.

Whatever the reason, music has the ability to reach across all kinds of boundaries and bring people of all kinds of backgrounds together.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Science and the Arts won its eighth consecutive school title in the recent Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair.

Seven ASMSA students also qualified as finalists for the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair based on state science fair results. They joined three ASMSA students who earned ISEF eligibility at the West Central Region Science Fair that was held in February at ASMSA. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 ISEF has been cancelled.

The Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair was held virtually this year in response to the pandemic. Participants submitted their projects through digital means to be judged. An awards ceremony was held on YouTube and can be viewed at https://asmsa.me/arstatesciencefair20vid.

ASMSA students who earned ISEF recognition at the state science fair included:

• Devin Patel of Blytheville, third place in the Best in State Individual Awards;
• Ethan Talley of Conway and the team of Alexx Weaver of Lonoke and Sophia McLain of Van Buren, tied for fourth place in the Best in State Individual Awards; and
• the team of Reed Karman of Little Rock, Rhiannon Smith of Bismarck and Max Green of North Little Rock, who finished outside of the top four in the Best in State Individual Awards. The team qualified for the ISEF competition because the students who finished in the top two in the Best in State awards had already qualified for ISEF through their regional science fair.

They join Victoria Hwang of Maumelle, Catherine Kwon of Little Rock and Jason Hoang of Hartman, who qualified for ISEF at the West Central Regional Science Fair.

The school title is determined by the number of points each school earned based on place-award winners divided by the total number of projects entered into the fair.

The ceremony included announcements of individual category and special awards. ASMSA students who earned category recognition include:

Animal Sciences — First Place: Amadeo Scott of West Fork; Second Place: Maria Quintero-Pena of White Hall; Honorable Mentions:  Lilli Hickman of Omaha, Peyton Manry of Melbourne and Kaitlyn Pearson of Berryville.

Behavioral and Social Science —  First Place: Team of Reed Karman of Little Rock, Rhiannon Smith of Bismarck and Max Green of North Little Rock; Honorable Mention: Abigail Bryan of Huntsville.

Cellular and Molecular Biology — First Place: Kindall Evans of Dumas.

Chemistry —  Second Place: Brayden Ireland of Harrison; Third Place: Blayne Griffin of Conway.

Computer Science — First Place: Devin Patel of Blytheville; Second Place:  Isha Patel of White Hall; Third Place:  Jaden Turner of Sherwood.

Earth and Planetary Science —  First Place: Team of Sydney Hazeslip of Cabot and Esther Filipek of Bismarck; Third Place: Team of Howard Grant Orlina of Little Rock and Amanda Carson of Russellville; Honorable Mention — Paul McDonald of Pine Bluff.

Environmental Management — First Place: Ethan Talley of Conway.

Mathematics — First Place: Team of Jacob Holmes of Rector and David Huang of Little Rock.

Medicine and Health — First Place: Team of Alexx Weaver of Lonoke and Sophia McLain of Van Buren; Second Place: Bailey Scoggins of Lepanto; Honorable Mention: Team of Nnume Nwanko of Alexander and Macey Ross of Jonesboro.

Microbiology—  Second Place: Team of Laura Hansen of Rogers and Aly Navarro of Hot Springs.

 

Special Awards

Acxiom Award for a project related to computer science: Devin Patel, honorable mention.

American Meteorological Society for an excellent project in Oceanic, Atmospheric or Hydrological Science: Team of Esther Filipek of Bismarck and Sydney Hazeslip of Cabot.

Arkansas Environmental Education Association for a project that promotes environmental literacy in Arkansas: Ethan Talley of Conway.

Association for Women Geoscientists for a top project by a female student in a project related to geoscience: Team of Amanda Carson of Russellville and Howard Grant Orlina of Little Rock.

Computer Science Teachers Association Award: Devin Patel of Blytheville, first place.

Edmond E. Griffin Award for a project that demonstrates creativity in life sciences: Macey Ross of Jonesboro.

Mark Welch Excellence in Animal Science Research Award: Amadeo Scott of West Fork.

Mu Alpha Theta awarded to first place project in Mathematics: Team of Jacob Holmes of Rector and David Huang of Little Rock.

NASA Earth System Science Award for an outstanding project in Earth System Science: Team of Esther Filipek of Bismarck and Sydney Hazeslip of Cabot.

Office of Naval Research awards: Team of Alexx Weaver of Lonoke and Sophia McLain of Van Buren.

Pepperman-Albert Memorial Award for an excellent project related to cancer research: Bailey Scoggins of Lepanto.

Society for Neuroscience, Arkansas Chapter for an outstanding project in neuroscience: Catherine Kwon of Little Rock.

U.S. Air Force awards: Devin Patel of Blytheville.

U.S. Metric Association for top project utilizing metric units: Brayden Ireland of Harrison.

Yale Science and Engineering Association for to project by a junior in areas of computer science, engineering, physics or chemistry: Kindall Evans of Dumas.

Madison Esteves, a senior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, received the Kye-Yak International Scholarship in the Thea Foundation Film Scholarship Competition.

Esteves of Hot Springs Village created a short film titled “spineless.” The story focuses on a puppet who breaks society’s rules and learns how to be a human. The majority of the silent film is in black and white, a choice Esteves thought put more emphasis on the story.

A team of students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned recognition at the recent National Ocean Sciences Bowl.

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is a nationwide, high school science competition focused on marine issues and knowledge. Students demonstrate their knowledge of marine and coastal science by answering questions from biology, physics, chemistry, geology, geography, mathematics and the social sciences. Each team consists of four students plus an alternate and a coach.

Catherine Kwon, a junior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, recently earned a 36 on the ACT — a perfect score.

Kwon took the universal ACT test, which every junior in Arkansas took for free, in February. It was the second time the student from Little Rock had taken the college-readiness assessment test. She scored a 35 on her previous attempt in 2019.

Interdisciplinary learning offers students opportunities to gain a broader perspective of a general topic leading to a deeper understanding of a specific course of study. The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts offers its students several courses that combine various disciplines, allowing faculty members from various departments to combine their areas of expertise in one class.

Infectious Diseases brings together biology and history instructors to explore both the life and social sciences aspects of diseases throughout humanity’s existence. ASMSA offers the course each spring semester.

Editor's Note: Sean Gray, a computer science secondary teacher at Marion high School, was named the 2020 Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year Award.

Two of the five finalists for the Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year are alumni of Coding Arkansas’ Future’s first cohort of educators.

Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative was created by the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in 2015 after Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson required every public and charter high school in the state offer at least one computer science course.

Two Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts alumnae have been selected as 2020 Goldwater Scholars.

Rebecca Parham of the Class of 2017 and Sabrina Jones of the Class of 2018 were recognized by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation as a recipient of this year’s scholarships.

One of the largest struggles medical personnel nationwide are facing as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic is shortages of personal protection equipment, or PPE. To help meet those needs, the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts is using its expertise and resources in 3D printing to produce face shields for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

ASMSA is using multiple 3D printers located on campus and several others printers among current students, alumni and other colleagues working remotely to print the basic hardware for the headgear. The effort is being led by Nicholas Seward, a computer science instructor at the school and an 3D-printing advocate with a national reputation for innovation in the field.