Due to COVID-19, the annual Sophomore Symposium, which showcases the top 10 sophomore project presentations, was held on Zoom on April 20 and 21.
Sophomore Sanjana Anand, who placed second, said presenting virtually felt almost the same as it did in person.
“The only difference was that the sides of some of my slides may have been cut off because of the way the Zoom participants appear on the screen when (screen sharing),” Anand said. “However, it was also good because you could refer to your notes without making it obvious.”
A recording of the Sophomore Symposium will be available at a later date, according to head of high school Brooke Wells.
At the Zoom morning meeting on April 24, judges announced the top three presentations. The judges included faculty members and past winners of the sophomore project competition: English teacher Jane Bauman; physics teacher Glenn Mangold; math teacher Patricia Jacobsen; seniors Larkin Barnard-Bahn, Jackson Margolis and Spencer Scott; and juniors Elijah Azar and Ming Zhu.
Bauman said the presentations were excellent, adding that it might have been easier to see the slides on Zoom than in person.
“All the students spoke clearly (and) at a good pace, which is amazing considering they were not speaking in the same room as their audience,” she said. “I really enjoyed watching all of them.”
First Place: Elliot Crowder, ”Sacramento: A Study of Racial Housing Patterns”
Second Place: Anand, “Immunotherapy: The Ultimate Answer to Cancer”
Third Place: Miles Morrow, ”The History of the Japanese in the United States”
Honorable Mentions:
Evan Grijnsztein, ”Flooding in Sacramento: A Long History”
Arikta Trivedi, ”California Cuisine”
Tina Huang, “Opening the World of Contemporary Art”
Nihal Gulati, ”Nuclear Power: Is It Viable?”
Arjin Claire, ”The Future: GMOs”
Daisy Zhou, ”Sacramento Water Resource and Quality”
Arijit Trivedi, ”Genetically Modified Crops: The Future of Food”
—By Larkin Barnard-Bahn
