E2K takes First Place in International Science Contest
It has been a banner year for WFHA's E2K team, which recently won first place in a challenging international science competition.
The team, made up of sixth, seventh and eighth graders, competed against their peers from all over the world in a two-hour contest that tested their knowledge of color and light, buoyancy and density.
"None of the answers were obvious. They each took deep scientific knowledge to answer," said Rhonda Ginsberg, who heads E2K at WFHA and guides the students to use logic, analysis, creativity and team work to approach science and math problems.
The students really worked together as a team, conducting the experiments and debating their final answers, Ginsberg said.
E2K, a program developed in Israel as a method to teach math and science to gifted students, is administered through the Gruss Foundation in the United States. Three times a year the foundation runs international contests for participating schools.
"I didn't think we would win, but when we started to answer every question right I thought we had a chance," said sixth-grader Shara Safer, adding that she and her teammates spent the weeks leading up to the contest researching the scientific concepts that would be tested.
When the two-hour competition was finished, waiting to hear the results was a nail-biting experience, said sixth-grader Eitan Barkow.
"When they announced the winners and I heard we didn't get second place, I thought, ‘At least we tried,' he said. "Then, they announced that we won first place. Everyone started to shriek and jump up and down. Even Morah Rhonda started to bounce off the walls. It was hilarious."
This is the second international E2K contest WFHA students have placed in. A team of WFHA students received a trophy from the Gruss Foundation in November, recognizing their second place win in an international E2K math competition last school year.