Community Middle School students win national championship in Illinois.
By: Emily Craighead
The West Windsor-Plainsboro Community Middle School Science Olympiad Team "Reached for the Stars" and discovered they had the "Wright Stuff" to capture first place at the 2005 National Science Olympiad at the University of Illinois this weekend.
The team of 18, including three alternates, competed in 27 events, including "Reach for the Stars," where they identified constellations, and "Wright Stuff," where they constructed and flew rubber-powered model planes. They took five first-place, two second-place, and two third-place medals.
"Once they tasted success, they knew they could do it," said Board of Education President Hemant Marathe, who accompanied the team to Illinois to see his daughter compete. Last year’s team took second place at the nationals.
For the past five months, team members have stayed after school nearly every day studying forestry, fossils, meteorology, astronomy and much, much more.
Principal Arthur Downs, the head coach, assembled a team of coaches with expertise in various areas.
Anand Gnanadesikan, whose daughter, Gitanjali, is on the team, works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and coached the team in meteorology. He said the students’ tenacity and enthusiasm impressed him.
"I was standing in front of 12 middle school students who stayed after school to study meteorology, and they’re asking questions, which is more than I can get my Princeton undergraduates to do," he said.
For the students, it has been a year of discovery.
"I learned that I love engineering," Gitanjali said. "I had no idea. It’s something you don’t do in school. We get to do it here, and it’s really fun."
Former head coach Virginia Banor’s guidance helped lead the team to its first national title.
"It was her dynamic style and commitment," Dr. Downs said.
Last year, Ms. Banor told the team mid-season they were headed for 25th place if they didn’t put their noses to the grindstone, but they listened and ended up finishing second in the nation.
"I really set the bar high, and I demand that they go over it," Ms. Banor said.
She came to Community Middle School from Montgomery Middle School, where she led the Science Olympiad team to numerous state championships.
Montgomery’s past victories helped motivate the Community Middle School team.
"In part, we owe our success to Montgomery, because we had to work really hard to beat them," freshman Peter Maa said.
Middle school science supervisor Miriam Robin attributed the team’s success in part to the collaboration between the coaches and their students.
"I think beyond their incredible victory, you will never see a group of teachers and students more committed to each other," she said.
Members of the championship team were seventh-grade students Gitanjali Gnanadesikan, Shir Aharon and Lekha Racharla; eighth-grade students Jonathan Kaufman, Ryan Pais, Gregory Doidge, Moya Chin, Taylor Lee, David Goldfinger and Jamie Joseph; and ninth-grade students Peter Maa, Priya Marathe, Isaac Cheng, Monika Mostowy and Kathy Li. The alternates were sixth-grade student Aparaajit Sriram and seventh-grade students Vidya Nandapurkar and Aparna Shankar. Coaches included Mort Levine and Denise Weber.
When the freshmen move on to join the high school team, sixth-grade students who spent this year washing goggles and beakers under coach Wanda Rinker will be prepared to take their place and perhaps lead the team to another appearance at nationals.

