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| Biology teacher Ingo Gaida coaches the group. Frank Kosa |
How a group of California teens won a national science bowl
The team from Santa Monica High School – a band of savants in the land of surfers – went through a grueling yearlong quiz class.
from the June 17, 2008 edition
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Boulgakov and Di Franco pause significantly longer than they need to remember stoichiometric coefficients, before nodding yes.
Scheffler is the only team member who is a native southern Californian (the others are from Russia and Venezuela). He's also the only one who tie-dyed his prom shirt, a process for which he provides the precise chemical explanation.
For all the knowledge these four carry around, no two had the same approach to learning. Boulgakov finds Wikipedia a paradise of limitless links. Scheffler made flashcards from Gaida's infamous packets – concentrated compendiums of names, dates, and concepts. He has more than 11 pounds of them sitting in his closet. Di Franco has taken nearly a dozen college courses, three of them in computers. Petrenko studied the old-fashioned way – with textbooks.
"I think computers are voodoo," he says.
"They're very self-motivated," says Gaida of team members, "and all pretty curious."
Curiosity has occasionally gotten the better of them. One day, Di Franco decided to synthesize thermite, a metallic compound used in welding, which ignited a purple fire and forced the evacuation of the school. He is still able to point out the scorch marks on the ceiling, though nothing in the room actually caught on fire. The compounds necessary for the experiment have since been locked away. "I had heard about its color," he says. "I just wanted to see it for myself."
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Team members look like your typical teenager: cargo pants and T-shirts, shorts and sneakers. No surfers in this crowd but neither are they nerds: Several like heavy metal music. The big difference is that they all spend a little more time with books, and, significantly, seem to retain what they read.
In the National Science Bowl finals, the Santa Monica squad prevailed over 66 other teams, each of which was a victor in regional competitions that involved a total of 12,000 students. The team won a six-foot trophy, $1,000 for the school, and a trip to London. Additional benefits come with being cerebral, too. "Girls like science bowl champions," says Petrenko with a sly smile.
The equation works the other way, too – science bowl champions like girls, as Di Franco notes – but only the smart ones. "There's no denying that it's hard to associate with some girls when you think what's entertaining is a book called 'The Nature of Solids,' " he says.
Di Franco has another year left in high school, but the others are all going on to college – some of the best in the country, not surprisingly. Despite being nearly always precise, when they discuss what the future holds, all four drift to generalities: lab research, computer science, becoming a doctor. "Dimitry has a dream of getting an island," mentions Di Franco.
In talking about them and his other students, Gaida also backs away from specifics and any prediction of Nobel prizes. Using the cautious language of a scientist, he says only that, "They will all be tops in their fields somehow."
With the school year winding down, and the competitions behind them, perhaps all that's necessary for now is to relax. But this may not be in their nature, as Petrenko states with a characteristic restlessness.
"Now that it's over," he says, "I'm bored."
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