Jacobs Science Team, Individuals Advance to State

The Jacobs High School Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering team (W.Y.S.E.) recently completed a very successful competitive season at the local, regional and state level.

Regional Competition

The W.Y.S.E. team placed first at the Regional Competition held Feb. 15, at Elgin Community College, said Jennifer Christian, English and ESL division head at Jacobs.

Team members competed against other schools by taking college-level tests in two of six categories. Awards were given to first, second and third place for individual scores.

Ten of the 14 members received individual medals with at least one medal from the following categories: biology, chemistry, computer science, English and physics.

Seventeen medals were given to the Jacobs team, the most the school has  ever earned at the event, Christian said in a release. The Eagles contingent received the top team scores in biology, English, math, and physics, competing with four other area high schools.

"This is the eighth time Jacobs received a first-place finish in the last 10 years of competition, suggesting a strong curriculum at the school," Christian said in a release.

"2013 makes the seventh consecutive first-place win for the team, which speaks highly of the rigorous courses, dedicated faculty, and committed students at Jacobs High School."

Sectional Competition

The entire team advanced to the Sectional Competition in March at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb and finished third place as a team (second year in a row) having won four individual medals, according to Christian. 

These four Jaocbs students advanced to the Illinois State W.Y.S.E. competition at University of Illinois, Champaign on April 8.

• Chad Franzen                   1st place English
• Justin Richmond               2nd place Physics
• Rachel Rim                       2nd place English
• Robert Thomas                 2nd place Chemistry

State Competition

Over 500 of the top students in the state from schools with 1,500-plus student enrollment competed at state. The results of the state competition were:

• Chad Franzen                    5th place English
• Rachel Rim                        5th place English
• Justin Richman                  7th place Physics
• Robert Thomas                  5th place Chemistry

W.Y.S.E. Coaches are Renita Rasmus and Phil Timm, science teachers at Jacobs High School.