Woodlands School Council

Twenty-three students from the Woodlands Robotics competed in the 8th annual Canadian National Robot Games this past Sunday at the Ontario Science Center and were very successful.  The Woodlands team was awarded a thermostatically controlled Soldering Station for being the largest team in attendance. Damien P. won Gold in the Advanced Line-Following Competition upsetting a 4 year reign by Truffle Pig.  Damien's speedy little robot was quite the crowd pleaser.  Increasingly challenging line courses posed problems but Damien's robot navigated to capture First. Woodlands took all three medals in the Search and Rescue.  Bronze was won by Viren G.,Silver was won by Mark S., and Gold was won by Sachin D..  This competition required rescuing a bear and returning it to the hospital by both autonomous and remote controlled robots. 

A great start to the robotic season saw Woodlands setting the stage for a very sportsmanlike and successful season.  Well done!

The Woodlands School came in second place, after UTS, in the 30th Annual YES Olympics (York Engineering and Science Olympics) held on October 14th! The YES Olympics invites high school students to step outside of the classroom environment and compete in six challenging science and engineering focused events.  This competition attracts an average of 900 students province-wide each year.  Way to go Woodlands!

The Woodlands School participated in six different events at the McMaster University Engineering and Science Olympics.  A total of forty-eight schools partook in this event.  Two of our teams won gold and bronze medals. 

Event: Physics Paper Triathlon: First Position - Gold Medal

Team Members:Keshav G., Deyu W., Dickson W., and Charlie G.

Event: Egg High Jump: Third Position - Bronze Medal

Team Members: Kevin T., Jim Z., Samuel X., and John L.

Congratulations to all of the participants and Mr. Shaikh for all of their hard work and dedication!

On March 12, 15 grade 10 students from The Woodlands wrote the Michael Smith Science Challenge run by the University of British Columbia.  With 876 students writing the contest nation-wide, we had 8 students finish in the top 25% in the country.  Of those 8, 6 finished in the top 10% in the country.  Of those 6, Charlie G. was awarded the top prize for all of Ontario.  But not to be out done, Cheng Z. finished 2nd overall!

In summary, Woodlands students ranked:

• 2nd overall nationally,
• 1st & 2nd in Ontario,
• 6 students in the top 10%,
• 2 more in the top 25% out of 876 contestants nationwide.

Congratulations to these fine students and their advisors!

 The Grade 10 Enhanced students participated in the special school program "Quest for Water: Ecological Challenge".  The assigned scenario was that a community needed water.  Students were first challenged to select a water supply for human use by testing different water and soil samples for oxygen, salinity, pH, nitrates and phosphorus.  In the second phase, they had to build a device to acquire groundwater from a well by a 3 m by 3 m barrier and filter out the impurities in approximately 20 minutes. In 20 minutes, using their "enhanced" inquiry and design skills, the groups built a pulley system.  One impressive group built a funnel that literally mechanically pumped and filtered litres of water.  The instructor at the Science Centre even commented that in his 30 years there, no group (and this program is usually attended by Grade 12 students) had ever built a pump system.  Therefore, this was definitely an impressive feat! 

Geoff E. and Andrew P.  won top honours at the Peel Science Fair – a gold medal, an invitation to National Competition in Winnipeg in May, an $80 cash prize, as well as a $1000 entrance scholarship to the University of Ottawa in Engineering. Both recipients are hoping to pursue a degree in engineering.

Their project, called Quantum Eraser, was set up to demonstrate the working nature of light.  It involves shining a laser at a wire to create an interference pattern and using polarizing filters to manipulate it.  This experiment demonstrates the ability for photons to pass around the wire in both directions simultaneously, and they will quickly refer you to Schroedinger's cat!

Well done!  Unfortunately, due to a lack of corporate sponsorship, Peel is unable to take them to the National Competition. 

Congratulations go to Mr. M. Shaikh and the members of the Woodlands Science Olympics Team!    The science students participated in the McMaster University Engineering and Science Olympics last week and of the 57 schools in attendance, and our school placed first overall by virtue of winning more medals than any other school in the competition.   Our teams won gold in the Physics Paper Triathlon, and silver in both the Civil Canada Arm competition and the Engineering Jeopardy competition.  Well done everyone!!