On January 15th, Dana Sparling gave a radio broadcast recital on All Classical Radio, a station with over 250,000 listeners across the world. Dana is a rising flutist and All Classical Radio’s current young artist …
Registration is now open for the Beaverworks Spring Yes You Can! program for 9th and 10th grade students! This is a Completely FREE program designed for students with little to no prior STEM experience, allowing them to explore …
Calling all students planning to apply to the CHS MST Magnet program! Here’s an overview of the admissions timeline. Our first first event of the year will be the Parent & Student Magnet Info Night …
As a Magnet tradition, we usually have a program-wide breakfast every semester. Our first semester breakfast, held on the Friday before winter break in the North Commons, was a great success. Students of all grades …
In early December, our freshmen and sophomore students present their 1rst semester research progress their research to their peers and a panel of MST staff and graduates. Our returning MST alumni come from all over …
On December 8th, the MST Senior Symposium was held at the Zellerbach administration center. Seniors presented the internship projects that they completed over the summer to the Camas School District community as well as MST …
Since the beginning of the school year, sophomore Magnetos have been reading and analyzing Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. After studying the play, the students were challenged to create their own short movie retellings of key scenes …
Our MST overnighter the Friday before Thanksgiving break was a great success. Magnetos spent the night at CHS playing games, doing karaoke, sharing snacks, and enjoying one giant schoolwide sleepover! Students bonded overnight while building …
Last Friday, 10th grade Magnetos had a pizza party in Ms. Robert’s class to celebrate their success on last year’s AP Environmental Science exam. Through hard work and dedication, the whole Magnet APES class finished …
MST sophomore Alex Yu was recently named as a 2025-2026 Enspire Arts Ambassador for violin, and awarded a $650 scholarship. Enspire Arts serves the Clark County region in arts and education programs for the community, …
We’d like to invite current 8th grade parents, guardians, and students to an informational Zoom webinar about the Camas High School MST Magnet program that’s scheduled for Tuesday, February 22nd, from 6:30 – 7:30 pm: https://camas-wednet-edu.zoom.us/s/83404277990
During the meeting, you’ll hear from MST students and staff about the application process and the unique characteristics of our program and its students. You will also have the option of asking questions in real time via the chat that will be answered by MST staff as they are asked.
For more information about the program prior to the meeting, please visit our website to review the admissions timeline, application process, sample schedules, etc. CHS MST Magnet Program Website
If after reviewing the website you have questions ahead of the informational meeting, please feel free to contact Tom Morris or Sam Greene at Camas High School.
The Society for Science announced earlier this week that CHS/MST senior Sunny Wang has been named a top 300 Scholar in the 81st Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) —the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors.
Regeneron STS recognizes and empowers the most promising young scientists in the U.S. who are creating the ideas and solutions that solve our most urgent challenges. A listing of all 300 Scholars can be found here; a total of 1,805 students around the country entered the competition this year. Each scholar will receive $2,000, and their schools will also receive $2,000 to use toward STEM-related activities. They could also be named as one of 40 Finalists, who each receive $25,000 and participate in the final competition in March. The top prize for the most promising emerging STEM leader in the United States is $250,000. The top 40 Finalists will be announced on Thursday, January 20th.
Congratulations, Sunny! We will be rooting for you!
We recently heard from 2018 CHS/MST grad Sarah Wells-Moran over the break who excitedly reported that she was able to present her work in person at the American Geophysical Union fall conference held in New Orleans from December 13th through the 17th. This was her first in person, collegiate presentation given the disruptions from Covid. What’s the focus of her work, you ask? Here’s what she had to say:
“My research is on ice! I’m specifically trying to find the tensile strength of ice on Antarctic ice shelves through remote sensing imagery. I spent a couple of weeks manually tracing all the fractures I could see on optical imagery through QGIS. Then I calculated stress from surface temperature and ice velocity data, and mapped out principal stress space to create a yield envelope. The tensile strength I calculate can then be put into ice flow models, which can potentially help predict where ice will fracture next, and can be used for sea level rise models in regards to iceberg calving. This summer I’ll be up in the Juneau Ice fields for two months hopefully getting some field data! I’m also hoping to go to Antarctica some day.”
Wells-Moran attends Wellesley College where she double majors in physics and geosciences. She is slated to graduate in December of 2022. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a PhD in the field of glaciology, hopefully starting grad school in fall of 2023. Thanks for the update, Sarah … Good Luck!
2018 CHS/MST grade Sarah Wells-Moran presents at conference.
2018 CHS/MST grade Sarah Wells-Moran presents at conference.
Happy Holidays from the MST Staff to you and your family! And we’d also like to congratulate our freshmen and sophomore students on their December to Remember Mini-Symposium performances yesterday. We understand how nerve wracking that can be, presenting in front of your peers and other strangers, but it was cool to see you stand and deliver and get some feedback from our grads. Bravo! Thanks also to the almost 20 graduates from years 2015-2021 who were able to come back and help with this process!
In some of the rooms you had a chance to hear about life after high school from the grad panel. If you didn’t get that chance, here’s the video of one of those discussions that took place in 710:
Interesting how all the graduates seemed to emphasize taking the time to “stop and smell the roses”, getting involved in clubs and extracurriculars, and working on becoming well-rounded people, etc. Hmmmm … food for thought.
Finally, Ciera Leblanc, a grad panelist from our MST class of 2015, emailed these thoughts to us that struck a chord with many of the staff. We wanted to share them with you:
Plan ahead, but be adaptable and willing to change. Life is unpredictable, and you never know what could change between now and when your goal is set.
Look for opportunities to learn and grow. Don’t assume you’re right (a big part of the scientific process!). Check more than one source.
Have fun, and try new, unfamiliar things! Join the marching band, study abroad, take an interesting class even if it’s outside your major.
Don’t apply to colleges based on name alone. Look into the quality of programs you’re interested in: professors, class sizes, and other opportunities.
Don’t expect to have your dream job directly out of college! (It took me a year of applying before I was able to land a job).
Be proud of your accomplishments, and don’t compare your progress to others. Everyone’s life trajectory is different. It’s okay to complete a college degree in four years, eight years, sometime later in your life, or not at all.
Have a restful and peaceful break … we’ll see you in 2022, Magnetos!
Greetings, Magnetos! The MIT (Yes, thatMIT) Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) is a rigorous, world-class STEM program for motivated high school student . This four-week virtual program teaches STEM skills through project-based, workshop-style courses.
The Beaver Works Summer Institute is pleased to announce that they will have 13 virtual program offerings for summer 2022. To begin the process of pre-qualifying to apply for the summer institute, students will work through a series of prerequisite self-paced units. Participation and performance in the online curriculum during the winter (starting in early February) will be one of the metrics used to determine acceptance into the 4-week program being held in July 2022, which will be taught over the summer at a higher level and will address more research-oriented technologies, techniques, tools, and applications. Check out the summer offerings and program info here: BWSI Pamphlet/Brochure
We’ve had quite a few Magnetos and other CHS students over the last few years take advantage of the MIT BWSI, which is a pretty remarkable experience from what I can gather. Spend a month over the summer working with MIT professors and motivated students from all over the U.S. doing super cool science stuff? Sounds like a winner to me. Anyone interested?
Requirements/Info:
They are attending high school in US or US citizen abroad
They have demonstrated technical ability (evidenced by recommendations from school of cials, test scores, coursework, grades, and extracurricular activities)
They have completed the lessons in the online tutorial for their desired project
Online course starts February 2022 (prerequisite in order to apply to the July program)
On December 13th, 2021, the Magnet senior class presented their summer internship work and projects to the Camas School District school board and community at the Zellerbach Administration Center. After the poster fair, staff, students, and community convened for the regular school board meeting to hear formal presentations of internships by seniors Kevin Klave, Nels Martin, and Rosie Kuhle.
Mr. Klave and Mr. Martin completed an engineering internship this past summer at local company nLight. Here’s the abstract for their project: “The Mach Zehnder interferometer is a scientific instrument that splits a beam of light into two parallel beams and then recombines them to produce an interference pattern. By measuring changes in the interference pattern, one can determine the phase shift of one of the beams, which is caused either by an increase in path length of the beam or by passing the beam through a transparent material. In this project, a Mach Zehnder interferometer was constructed to test a component of a 3-d camera for the company nLight. An infrared semiconductor fiber laser was used to construct the interferometer, and after calibration the expected interference pattern was successfully observed with a camera. The interferometer will be used by nLight to measure the change in index of refraction caused by passing electricity through a Pockels cell. where they worked with lasers to researched the efficacy of printer friction pads.” Poster: Configuring a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer to Measure Refractive Index of Pockel Cells
Ms. Kuhle conducted an internship at Lord Hill Regional Park, located in Snohomish, WA, researching their use policies and gathering park user data to update a use policy from the 90s. Here’s her abstract: “This park currently runs under a supplemental master plan from 1996, which has outdated maps and assessments of user groups. The two main user groups highlighted in that plan are equestrians and hikers, however mountain biking has become a popular sport at the park. Because mountain biking became popular after the implementation of the 1996 master plan, there are little specifications written about bike trails and regulations. My survey administration at Lord Hill Regional Park was intended to gather quantitative and qualitative information that the Snohomish Parks and Recreation department could use to develop an updated master plan. The results suggest that park satisfaction and sense of safety is high among all user groups. The results also suggest that roughly 30% of users have gotten lost in the park, and up to 50% have had conflict with other user groups. These data may be considered when determining the next steps for managing Lord Hill Regional Park.”Poster: Park Management at Lord Hill Regional Park
Congratulations, seniors, on completing your internships and moving one step closer to graduation!
One of the most beloved traditions in the MST Magnet is our annual “Overnighter” event where we spend the night at school and play games, watch movies, share food, etc. We’re still not ready for the full scope and scale of this event in the midst of a pandemic, but, alas, we are ready for a “Half-Nighter”, and that’s just what happened this past weekend on Friday night, November 12th. From 4:30-11:30, staff and approximately 100 of our students gathered at school, minus the food, minus the sleeping bags, and played games and once again enjoyed each other’s company. Highlights of the night included riveting Jenga matches, cut throat spoons games, ping pong, spike ball, and, of course “Mafia”! Thank you to the Magnetos and staff who made this possible.
Magnet faithful get instructions for “Mafia”
Spikeball warriors
Students line up to take a turn at ping pong
Mafia players at the CHS entrance awaiting another round.
On October 9, in Wilsonville, OR, the local FIRST Robotics Team 2471 (Team Mean Machine) had their first in-person competition since quarantine started. They brought two robots to this event, Artemis (2020) and Apollo (2021). Apollo struggled due to drivetrain issues, so unfortunately we weren’t able to see much from it before the team turned their focus to Artemis. This strategy paid off, though, as Artemis ended up in the winning alliance! Before losing connectivity almost completely by the end of the day, it was able to show off a high-speed shooter, autonomous aiming, and practiced driving. We’ll next see the team shooting t-shirts into the crowd at the homecoming game! (Submitted by Ayla Crowell, team president)
Interested in joining? Check out their website: team2471.org
Passing on some info about an upcoming program being offered by MIT to junior girls. Who’s in?
“We are excited to announce the BWSI Fall Program (virtual) for 11th Grade female students starting in October. The program is completely free, all students need are laptops and wifi to be a part of the program. If a student does not have a laptop they can reach out to us for a loaner, so make sure that doesn’t stop anyone from signing up.
We are offering the following programs:
Girls Who Program Autonomous Cars
Girls Who Design, Build and Fly Model Aircraft
Girls Who Want to Learn Many Interesting Things
Girls Who Program Cognitive Assistants
Girls Who Program Autonomous Cars – BWSI-Pacific
Kwaj Mini-RACECAR Middle School (Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands)
WHO: High School 11th Grade Female Students
WHEN: Saturdays 11am-2pm (EST): October 16, 23, 30, November 6,13, 20, December 4, 11, 2021
Things are off to a running start at CHS and in the MST Magnet Program. How nice it is to have all of us back under one physical “roof”, reveling in each other’s presence and basking in the glory of in person school. This feeling was no more underscored than it was during our annual freshman MST orientation that was held on 8/25 from 330-545pm at CHS. There was much needed laughter and safe togetherness as students, staff, and upperclassmen played ice breakers and competed in the annual Magnet Olympics. Congratulations to the black team on being crowned this year’s winners of the games. Their names will be inscribed on our trophy and preserved for posterity for years to come. The winners are Cai D., Cody A., Logan V., Bethany M., Jenny W., and Angela Y.
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