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By KIMBERLY DAVIS kdavis?@leader.net
Sunday, March 16, 2003 Page: 1E
Like hundreds of other high school students in Pennsylvania, Bishop Hoban
junior Michael Stanek spent the past few months preparing for the annual
Science Olympiad. The difference is that Stanek, 17, is legally blind.
Challenged by nystagmus, a condition characterized by rapid, jerky eye
movements, Stanek has learned to use his other senses to compensate for his
faulty vision.
“It teaches you to deal with things differently,” he said. “I learn a lot
more by listening.”
The regional Science Olympiad was held Wednesday at the Penn State
Wilkes-Barre campus, Lehman Township, and the 15-member Bishop Hoban team
participated in the competition for the seventh consecutive year.
They have enj~oyed an increasing measure of success, bringing home a medal
the first year they competed, and boasting five medals at the end of last
year’s competition.
Bishop Hoban’s team finished fourth in the overall competition this year.
Stanek, a true team player, found events where he could have an edge.
He competed in an event called Feathered Frenzy, where students are asked
to demonstrate knowledge of birds, and in Dynamic Planet, a test of topics in
earth science.
In early March, Stanek and his Dynamic Planet teammate Catherine Zack were
studying at an after-school Science Olympiad session in the classroom of team
coach Mary Humiston.
Senior team members Kristy Gogick and Jen Zurek ~~~~were using a K’nex
building set to work on an event called Write It, Do It, a technical writing
exercise where one student writes a description of a contraption and the other
builds it from the description.
Junior Brian Osick was building a propeller plane for The Wright Stuff and
juniors Jerry May and Chris Roman were putting the finishing touches on a
complicated Rube Goldberg device, which demonstrates a series of energy
changes to accomplish a certain task, for the Mission Possible event.
Other Bishop Hoban team members, Jennifer Otway, Kyle Olszewski, Genevieve
Blanc, Christina Drogalis, Beth Karwaski, Jack Lehigh, Chris Hine and Maria
Duaime, were preparing for their events as well.
Humiston, the chemistry teacher at Bishop Hoban, is assisted in the Science
Olympiad by physics teacher Eugene Gowisnok and biology teacher Diane Jones.
There are two kinds of events in the Science Olympiad – those where
students create projects and those where their knowledge is tested.
Stanek sticks to events where he uses his brain power.
“It would be easier for me to learn this than it would be to build the
plane,” he said.
Stanek, the son of Mike and Cindy Stanek of Ashley, was born with
nystagmus. His mother was adamant from the time he entered school that her
bright son should be educated in a regular classroom and Michael has proven
that he was up to the challenge.
“He probably has the best memory of anyone in this household,” Cindy Stanek
said.
Bishop Hoban team members were selected to compete in the Science Olympiad
on the basis of teacher recommendation. Stanek was on the team last year, and
traveled to the Penn State campus before the event to learn his way around.
But he’s learned more than just the layout of the venue, when it comes to
the Science Olympiad.
“It’s based on using all the knowledge that you have to solve common sense
problems,” Stanek said. “And not only do you have to know your area, you have
to be able to work well with others.”
STANEK PULL QUOTE:
“Not only do you have to know your area, you have to be able to work well
with others.”
Michael Stanek
Bishop Hoban junior