Each year, the Staples Spectacular Student Challenge provides students with a real-world problem for which they have a single Sunday to discuss and propose a solution. Following the initial day of proposing a solution in the form of an academic paper, each groups’ work is reviewed by a faculty panel and the top six groups are chosen to present their ideas to judges who will choose a winner. The presentations took place Tuesday, April 30.
Following the presentations, the judges came together to choose the top three groups. On Friday, May 3, the winners were announced at the end of the school day.
The winning group was composed of Michael Menz ’13, Mrinal Kumar ’14, Robert Deluca ’13, Ryan Greenberg ’13 and Leo McElroy ’13. In second place was Claudia Landowne ’15, Claire Sampson ’15, Chai Kim ’15, Madeline Schemel ’15 and Terrie Yang ’15. Katie Zhou ’14, Melissa Beretta ’14, Baxter Stein ’14, Max Liben ’14 and Jack Cody ’14 took third place.
This year, the students had to create a better solution for preparing for and recovering from storms, such as Superstorm Sandy, using Seaside Heights, N.J. as a case study, said Liben.
Liben’s group created a proposal that they dubbed “STORM: Seaside Transformation and Organization Recovery Method.” “Our proposal was unique in that we combined a scientific approach to the problem as well as dealing with the social and economic aspects,” Liben said.
Another participant, Nick Vega ’14, described his group’s proposal, which they presented on Tuesday using a prezi. They thought of “creating a committee that would provide funding opportunities on an annual basis in order to combat the natural disasters,” Vega said. “It had the nice combination of feasibility and effectiveness that I think the judges were looking for.”
His group even added the perspective of a resident in New Jersey who was affected, which “showed the importance of an effective proposal because of his frustrations, and we tried to add to our idea by satisfying his frustrations,” Vega said.
One of the panel members was Frank Corbo, K-12 Coordinator for Mathematics, who described reading each paper and being impressed by every single effort. “Since this is a competition, we had to choose only six papers to move on to present,” Corbo said. “But they were all really good, and every participant should be recognized for their time and achievement.”
Lisabeth Comm, James D’Amico, John Dodig, Jim Goodrich, Julie Heller, Theron Kissinger, A.J. Scheetz and Robin Stiles also read the papers. Math teacher Trudy Denton, one of the event organizers, said that a huge amount of work goes into the planning the entire challenge.
Westport parent and challenge judge David Reiser said the presentations made him proud. “This continues to show me just how special Staples High School is for all our kids. No matter who you are, Staples has spectacular programs if you want to take advantage of them.”
In addition to Reiser, Maxine Bleiweis and Nate Gibbons sat on the judging panel. Reiser was impressed by the amount of work that was done in such a short time, in addition to the presenters’ enthusiasm, talent and brains.
The presentations were not only a way to show their hard work and findings but a way to see other ideas from other groups, said Liben. “There were a lot of great ideas that no one in our group had thought of, and it definitely seemed that a combination of every groups’ ideas would have a huge impact if implemented,” he said. Without even worrying about winning, each group learned something new from the others.
“The presentation was definitely a worthwhile experience,” said Vega. “I’ve never actually formally presented an idea in an auditorium in front of so many people like that,” he said.
The challenge allows students to display their ingenuity and problem solving skills. It’s “a great competition in that it tests all of the skills that we need as students to go out into the world and be successful,” Liben said.
