Clayton Student Nets Scholarship With AP Test Scores

Clayton High School recently received a $2,000 scholarship as part of the 2010 Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement for her high scores on multiple college-preparatory tests. She and senior Aojia Zhao were the two award winners in the state of Missouri, a Siemens Foundation news release states.

In an e-mail interview, she spoke about her achievements and plans for the future. An e-mail interview with Siemens Foundation representative Lauren Espin follows.

Which AP tests did you take, and how did you score? 

 I took four AP tests. In the math/science realm, I took AP Chemistry, AP Biology, and AP Calculus BC. I received 5s on all of these. I additionally took AP US History and received a 5 on this exam as well. This year, I plan to take 6 more APs: AP English Language, AP European History, AP Physics B, AP Physics C (Mechanics), and AP World History.

Talk about your three favorite subjects. Why do you enjoy them so much? 

I have had a huge number of wonderful classes and I don't know if it is even possible to pick three. So I am going to cheat and pick four, and hope that's okay. My favorite classes have been AP Chem, AP Physics, AP US, and AP World. In each of these classes, I have had a wonderful teacher who has ran an incredibly informative and interesting class. For chem and physics, I particularly enjoy all of the problem solving. There aren't a huge number of concepts that we have learned in those classes, but the applications of those ideas are seemingly endless, which is why I find the subjects so intriguing. I like the study of American and World History for very different reasons. American history just seems so pertinent to nearly every aspect of society today, and I really enjoy learning about the broader themes and connections for world history.

What test-taking strategies were most helpful to you? 

 Most of my teachers continually tell the class that studying isn't something that we just do in a day—it's what we do all day, every day. In particular, Ms. Rogers-Beard, my world history teacher, always emphasizes that we need to focus because the classroom is where we do most of our studying. Mr. Rice, my physics teacher, says that if we do all of the assigned problems and really understand them, then we shouldn't ever really need to study for a test. That being said, I did study for my biology and history tests by making notecards and outlines. Writing the information down really helped me remember what I needed to learn. For problem solving classes, like chemistry, math, and physics, I usually just do problems when they are assigned and review some problems that integrate a lot of the material before a big test.

What advice would you have for students who are trying to decide whether to take an AP test? 

At my school, everybody who takes the AP test is encouraged to take the AP class. So, generally, the rule I would go by is that a person should take the test if he/she was in the class. When deciding whether to take the class, I always made sure to pick a subject that I was interested in. That way, I would be doing work for classes I enjoyed, instead of working really hard to learn material that didn't interest me.

What are your plans for college and beyond?

I don't really know what my plans are for college and beyond. I will be attending a four year college next year, but I didn't apply early anywhere so I am just beginning to hear back. I am completely undecided about what I want to study.

Lauren Espin, Siemens Foundation representative

Talk about the history of the Siemens Foundation scholarship program. Why is this something the foundation has decided to invest in, particularly with a focus on math and science education?

The Siemens Foundation has nurtured tomorrow’s scientists and engineers since 1998. Each year we invest more than $7 million in innovative STEM education initiatives that encourage excellence among students, teachers and schools from grade school to graduate school. Our commitment to advancing STEM education is reflected through our partnerships with the College Board, Discovery Education, the National Science Teachers Association and many of the nation’s leading colleges and research universities. STEM education creates the pipeline of future innovators that will move most aspects of this country forward. In order for the US to stay competitive in science and technology there has to be a focus on STEM education.

As the president put it in his State of the Union address, this is our Sputnik moment.  We must foster innovative thinking and a spirit of embracing challenges among the next generation of scientists and engineers. The Siemens Foundation believes we need to engage all levels of society in science if we are to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world. If you look at the latest National Assessment of Education Progress report on US student performance in science, it is extremely disappointing. But it only underscores the need to bring everyone onboard.  We should look to develop cross-collaborations between academia, nonprofits, the business community, government and the media to inspire engagement in science at all levels.

What conditions must students meet to be eligible for these scholarships? How much money is awarded?

In order to be eligible for the Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement students must receive scores of 5 in AP Biology, Calculus BC, Chemistry, Computer Science A, Environmental Science, Statistics, Physics C Mechanics and Physics C Electricity and Magnetism exams.

The award recognizes those students who have earned the greatest number of scores of 5 on exams. One male and one female student are selected in each state and awarded a $2,000 college scholarship. Also, two national winners (one male, one female) are awarded a $5,000 college scholarship.

This year, 99 high school students in 50 states, including 91 seniors, six juniors, one sophomore and one freshman were recognized.

Standardized tests have been criticized as tools that fail to capture what students are learning or how well teachers are teaching. Is that a fair criticism? To what degree are tests such as AP's math and science exams valuable for education?

 While standardized and AP exams have been the subject of criticism, research consistently shows that students who take AP course and exams typically experience greater academic success in college and have higher college graduation rates than students who do not participate in AP.  Also,  students who take AP math and science courses major in STEM fields at significantly higher rates than other students, according to the study, AP Students in College:  An Analysis of Five-Year Academic Careers, released by the College Board in 2007.

The Siemens Foundations believes science teaching and learning goes beyond the memorization of information for the sake of an exam. It is about bringing science to life and engaging students.  Through our Siemens STEM Academy, we help educators bridge the gap between science and students' lives.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

The past few years have been very exciting for the Siemens Foundation. We have expanded beyond our signature Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology and Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement programs with the launch of the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge and Siemens STEM Academy.

Through a partnership with Discovery Education we created the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, which encourages K-12 students to develop innovative green solutions for environmental issues. And with Siemens Science Days we bring hands-on science learning to students at elementary schools across the country.

The Siemens STEM Academy is an initiative geared towards teachers, which includes an online community designed exclusively to foster STEM achievement through the sharing of best practices. Our partnership with Discovery allows STEM Academy teachers nationwide to gather for a week-long immersion program to engage with today’s critical science thinkers.