By: Katrina Hu In the hallway behind Vann’s parlor, there are two bright green file folders stapled onto a bulletin board. Every Wednesday at 9:00am, the top folder waits with new tests for Natural Science Challenge participants. By 7:00pm, the bottom folder is stuffed with returned papers. Unless the participant is a Natural Science student, they might only see those two bright green folders and miss the enthusiastic instructors beyond the bulletin board. During a brief interview in the lively atmosphere of Belk Dining Hall, Philip Boyne, the challenge’s host, tells about what goes on behind-the-scenes, giving a bit of advice along the way. “The questions come from God above,” Philip reveals jokingly. In reality, the questions arise through a process of evolution. Since the challenge originated over 11 years ago, each Natural Science instructor has added their own touch to it, modifying, cutting, and creating questions as they see fit. Early on, the questions were more content-based, requiring knowledge from a variety of advanced science courses. However, the challenge has gradually shifted to test science “intuition”, including more logic and problem solving, while bypassing the jargon. In the challenges issued so far, Philip’s favorite question is the question on why cicadas resurge in prime number cycles.
Once the students have returned the tests, Philip and Doc (another natural science instructor) grade them, with the former taking the physics-related questions and the latter biology. “My favorite part of the Natural Science Challenge is laughing at wrong answers,” Philip says with a grin. He further explains that he genuinely enjoys reading open ended questions in general. He is amazed at how often students come up with answers that the question writers haven’t anticipated, by coming up with creative ways to separate two magnets, for instance. To students looking to improve their general science intuition, here’s Philip’s advice: “There’s no secret to it. Science intuition isn’t something you have or don’t have.” To improve your science intuition, you’ve just got to follow your innate curiosity: be interested and ask “why” to everything. For instance, whenever you walk outside and see a cool plant, take the time to smell it, really look at it, and wonder about it. “We all have time to invest – we can invest it in school or otherwise. In general, it’s a good idea to engage in something in which you learn, whether it be cooking, reading, art or science.” You can spend your time watching Netflix, or, like Philip and his wife, you can spend it waiting by your window for the chance to observe a brightly colored yellow goldfinch. Finally, Philip leaves everyone with a few words: “Thank you to anyone who has done the Natural Science Challenge, and I encourage anyone from any discipline to enter. Have fun, and don't fret about scores.” He reassures us that, despite being a physics teacher now, he would have scored ones or twos on these challenges when he was our age. On that note, congratulations to the top scorers in the Natural Science Challenge so far! Joe Arch (Math) - 17 Erin Murray (Math) - 16 Adrian Archer (Math) - 15 Jeff Fu (Math) - 14 Sophia Carson (Social Science) - 14 Paige Strecker (Natural Science) - 11
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