CHS WYSE Team wins Regional and Sectional Academic Challenges
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Chester High School WYSE Team (Worldwide Youth of Science and Engineering) has been very busy and most successful as of late. In the past two months Chester's WYSE Team has attended and won both the Regional and Sectional Academic Challenges and will now advance to the State Competition.
Regional Championships were Friday, February 5 at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC). The team competed against 14 other schools from around the area. Each team took two tests in scholastic subjects such as Math, English, Chemistry, Biology and Physics. The Chester group brought home the 1st Place Trophy.
Chester WYSE Team members include Mollie Laramore, Lauren Hoops, Jamie Long, Caleb Courier, Miles Zhang, Brandon Straight, Brett Barthol, Rachel Young, Rebecca Young, Amy Araiza, Patrick Strickler, Ashley Lindsay, Laura Liefer and Jillian Yankey.
On Thursday, March 11 Chester's WYSE Team joined 32 other schools at McKendree University to compete in the State Sectional Tournament of the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Academic Challenge.
The Chester Team once again placed 1st in their division along with schools from Governor French Academy, Centralia and Edwardsville. Chester competed in the Division 700 category and earned 455.7 points in their first-place quest.
The WYSE program in general is designed to encourage the advancement of science and mathematics among high school students and it further promotes careers in engineering and the sciences.
WYSE Academic Challenges are a series of competitive multiple-choice tests given to the student-participants. There are seven areas of interest which are challenging and motivating to interested students on the various teams.
Groups of students from the various schools are tested both as a team and as individuals. Areas of interest include Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering Graphics, English, math and Physics. The level of difficulty of the tests is at a senior-high school and freshmen-college level.
Two Chester High School WYSE Team members also won awards at the individual test level. Brandon Straight placed 2nd in the Chemistry 700 category, while Miles Zhang won the Math 700 category and the Physics 700 category.
Chester WYSE Team coach, Elizabeth King, stated after the Regional and Sectional competitions, "I am very proud of our students. They work hard and compete hard and deserve the successes they have achieved."
King notes that now the Chester High School WYSE Team will advance to the State Competition held at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana Monday through Thursday, April 19-22.
It should be noted that the Chester Team achieved their success competing against schools such as Althoff, Belleville West, Bond County, Breese Central, Centralia, Christ Our Rock Lutheran, Collinsville, Dupo, Edwardsville, Freeburg, Gibault, Governor French, Highland, Mascoutah, Mater Dei, Mulberry Grove, Nashville, New Athens, O'Fallon, Odin, Patoka, Salem, Sandoval, South Central, Sparta, Waterloo, Wesclin and West Washington County (Okawville).