Saratoga News

On Campus

Redwood students get awards at fair

Three Redwood Middle School students captured awards at the 38th annual Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair.

Sixth-grader Grace Hsu studied the effects of ginseng on a rat's ability to run a maze. Although the root-munching rodents were more interested in sitting and cleaning themselves in the entrance to the maze than participating in Grace's experiment, she earned honorable mention for her work. She assembled a display, including photographs from various stages in her experiment, and attended the science fair. The judges were impressed with Grace's determination and her explanation of how she would improve the experiment were she to run it again.

Seventh-graders Jeremy Nelson and Justin Liang won second prize for their experiment in which they grew radishes hydroponically and tested various solutions for speed of growth. Tap water won, though they found that the hydroponic solutions would have outperformed tap water in a longer experiment. Their display also included photographs of various stages of the experiment.

Mayor honors local teacher

Saratoga Mayor Don Wolfe honored teacher Lavonne Marafino May 20. Marafino, who is retiring this year, has been a teacher and resource specialist with the Saratoga Union School District since 1959. In that time, she won the Santa Clara County Teacher of the Year award for 1985 and has been active in the Saratoga Teachers Association, the California Association of Resource Specialists, the California Teachers Association and numerous district committees.

The mayor's statement reads, in part, "I, Mayor of the City of Saratoga, hereby proclaim our thanks and commendations to Lavonne Marafino for almost 30 years of service to the school district and to the community as a whole."

Saratoga seniors win scholarships

Two Saratoga High School seniors recently won scholarships from Creighton University, where they have been accepted for the fall term. Whittney Dotzler won a de la Vega scholarship for $7,500 and has been accepted into Creighton's college of arts and sciences. Andrew Sun won a Reinert scholarship in the amount of $5,000 and a Labaj scholarship for $1,000. Creighton University awards about 400 scholarships each year to students across the nation.

Internet Institute set for this July

Local K-12 teachers and administrators have the opportunity to sharpen their online skills during the Santa Clara County Office of Education's 1998-99 Internet Institute.

The institute offers classes in using browsers and email, search techniques and creating Web pages. Local teachers already skilled in the use of this technology teach the seminars at the Internet Institute, now in its third year. About 2,000 educators have already received training, and event planners estimate another 1,000 to 1,500 will do so this year. Classes run in two sessions, July 7-16 and July 21-30. For registration information call 453-6523.

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