Recently, seven Juniors at St. Rita of
Cascia High School were invited to help judge a Science Fair at
Keller Regional Gifted Center, one of ten such institutions in the
Chicago public school system that promotes an accelerated and
challenging curriculum. The seven young men were accompanied to
108th and Sacramento by Assistant Principal Joe Partacz,
who is familiar with academic competitions from his work with the
Scholastic Bowl team and the It’s Academic grammar school event at
St. Rita.
The students at Keller presented a wide
variety of different projects, ranging from the traditional “Which
liquid helps plants grow bigger?” to very creative topics such as
one 8th grade girl’s project of splitting a water
molecule into separate atoms.
Kevin Murphy, one of the Rita volunteer
judges, said, “The kids were very talented and presented well
thought out projects.” Brian Allen, another judge, added, “When I
was asked to come to this fair, I had high expectations of what I
would see. The Keller students exceeded my expectations.”
This is not the first time the two schools
have worked together in this capacity. Mr. Partacz has been
selecting St. Rita’s finest Junior students to judge the fair for
the past several years. It wasn’t all work though, because not
only did the Ritamen miss a few of their own classes, they also
received “Rose” service hours for their willingness to
participate. Certainly a more than ample reward for an experience
that was fun to begin with, and might even have yielded a glimpse
at the next Nobel Prize winner.
The complete list of judges was: Brian
Allen, Michael Kennedy, Marty Malone, Kevin Murphy, Chris Prchal,
David Straple, and Kyel White, all member of the class of 2009.
