Once every two to three weeks, the Concord Academy community receives an email from Science Club Co-Heads Nana Jiraphanphong ’24, William Kim ’24, and James Lee ’24. The arrival of this email suggests that Science Club is hosting an exciting and informative experiment in the coming days. As an active club on campus, Science Club’s meetings are well attended by students who are intrigued by the premise of the new experiment.
Science Club’s primary mission is to promote STEM subjects in the CA community, which is often humanities and arts-oriented. As William explained, “At a place like CA which traditionally has a very strong focus on the arts and humanities, it is important for students like us to promote a love for the more STEM-oriented subjects out there. So, our goal is basically to support students in subjects in Science.”
The Co-Heads of this club are motivated to help other students partly because they lacked access to mentorship during their first year at CA, which was during the height of the pandemic. “With all of the complicated COVID stuff in our time at CA, it was difficult to find concrete and solid opportunities to engage in Science … so we do want to give that opportunity to underclassmen and just to meet students as best as we can and facilitate overall engagement in the subjects because we think it contributes to a better academic environment.” William elaborated. Science Club’s mission, thus, is first and foremost to assist students in their journey to discover Science related subjects and to ignite fellow community members’ interest in those fields.
Even though most of this year’s Science Club agenda is not determined yet, there are many events in the works. Other than the usual fun experiments Science Club hosts, the egg drop competition could return this year, or so too could a paper plane competition. Trips to museums or university labs are also on the table. The club is also considering bringing a CA delegation to participate in science fairs and competitions. Furthermore, William also hopes that the club can do something beneficial for the school as a whole, for instance, a liquid tree, which is an algae tank that absorbs carbon dioxide.
Science Club is on track to having an amazing year with plenty of events planned to support the STEM community at CA.