Do you have a passion for science? Do need some community service hours? Join Science Synergy and share your love of science with children in our local community!

Science Synergy is a student-run nonprofit organization that was founded in August 2013 by Harriton High School juniors Samantha Davis, Mirriam Lee and Bridget Wilby, members of various STEM related activities at school. Flustered by the lack of science interest in our area, Sam, Mirriam and Bridget were inclined to share their love of science with students nearby.

They paired with Harriton Science Club co-presidents Jason Herrmann and Matthew Zhao to bring Science Club members from Harriton to present science demos to students of the Philadelphia school district.Through their connections with Meagan Hopkins-Doerr, the director of IPRAXIS (a nonprofit organization that promotes STEM education for Philadelphia students), they contacted Northwood Academy Charter and Cook Wissahickon Elementary to set up Science Synergy’s first event: an interactive science-demonstration festival known as Science Day 2014.

Science Synergy’s second event, the Science Synergy invitational, happened last Thursday, June 7, at the Community College of Philadelphia. It was a science competition designed for middle school students of Philadelphia to promote science education and, ultimately, improve science standardized test scores of students from Philadelphia.

The Science Synergy Invitational modeled a Science Olympiad competition, in which groups of 2-3 participants competed in a certain number of competition events. This year’s events included Science Pictionary, Science Relay (participants in teams of 4 do physical activities—such as dribbling a basketball or passing a football—and answer science questions), Aluminum Foil Towers (groups of three students compete to build the tallest tower that can hold a ping pong ball for 5 seconds), Design and Create (one competitor writes instructions on how to build a contraption presented at competition, and his or her partner then attempts to replicate the original contraption, given the building materials, by following the writer’s instructions) and Toothpick Egg Drop.

The club leaders set up clubs at the target schools, Cook Wissahickon Elementary and Northwood Academy Charter, throughout the school year for the middle school student participants to prepare leading up to the competition. There were 14 Harriton High School Science Synergy members, including Samantha Davis, Mirriam Lee, Bridget Wilby, Caleb Dixon, Felix Serlin, Lucas Serlin, Vera Lee, Jamie Song, Kayla Trimble, Sabrina Sayoc, Matthew Zhao, Eleanor Mayes, Nathan Wagman and Harry Smith, who ran the competition,

There were more middle school students than expected who attended the event; 28 students came from Cook Wissahickon Elementary and 21 came from Northwood Academy. Those who scored within the top three in each event were awarded with ribbons. It was a huge hit–8^th grade participants said that they wanted the Science Synergy competition in high school, and many stated that they want more than one competition to take place next year!

Aside from being fun and rewarding, Science Synergy is also a great means of getting community service hours! In fact, Harriton’s Science Synergy was recently awarded the Community Partner of the Year award from IPRAXIS on May 27! If you are interested in joining Science Synergy, contact Sam, Mirriam, and Bridget at [email protected]!

Visit sciencesyn.weebly.com to learn more about the club, and stay tuned for upcoming events next year!