Science Department
Awards and Highlights

2008-2009

(November 2008) Science Teacher Gina Slusinski received great news that her grant request for $500 for funds to support a lake activity has been approved by the Lake Education Assistance Program (LEAP). State funds for this award are made available pursuant to Partners for Conservation legislation.

(September 2008) Homewood-Flossmoor High School’s Physics class students launched rockets that they constructed from scratch on the football field recently. With special software they were able to calculate the height and the distance of the rockets.
     

2007-2008

(May 2008) 2003 H-F Alum Emily Olsen spoke to students in Brian McCarthy's class about her fire pilot training in the naval academy in Pensacola, Florida. Olsen graduated from the navel academy in 2007.
 

(April 2008) In Tony Svozil's Engineering Physics class, students are participating in building model trebuchets. The word "trebuchet" is from medieval French, roughly meaning "to tumble" or "to fall over". Trebuchets are basically "stone-throwers" or "catapults". As the students built their models, they were able to study energy conversion, as the trebuchet converted potential energy to kinetic energy. In addition, they calculated machine efficiency and used computer simulations to increase range and repeatedly hit a target. Knowledge gained from this activity will be used to engineer a much larger trebuchet, which will be built from scratch using PVC pipe and fittings.
 

(February 2008) Congratulations to Senior James Shannon who placed 2nd in Ecology and 3rd in Fermi Questions at the SWSC Conference Science Meet held on Saturday, January 26th. A job well done by all the Viking competitors!

(January 2008)  H-F High School’s Science Teacher Kim Smith has been given the College of the University of Chicago’s Outstanding Teacher Award for her influence on a current College of the University of Chicago student when he/she attended her classes at H-F High School. The university sent Smith an award letter along with a certificate to acknowledge her achievements.

(December 2007)  As part of Project Exploration’s sponsorship, H-F High School’s Science Teacher Matt Knoepke along with 2 other teachers delegates and 10 Chicago area high school students were invited to participate in the unveiling of a major discovery – a 30-foot long skeleton of the dinosaur Nigersaurus from Africa that mowed down ferns some 110 million years ago.  The unveiling was led by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

2006-2007

(May 2007) Science Teacher Tony Svozil has submitted a winning application to BP's A+ for Energy for a grant in the amount of $10,000.

For more information about these pages,
contact Mr. David Thieman, Director of Human Resources: dthieman@hfhighschool.org