Three LPS teams win gold in CU Thesis Defense Competition

Three Lawton High School teams walked away with gold medals in the final round of the 11th Annual Cameron University High School Thesis Defense Competition recently.

In the first round of the event, 23 student teams from Eisenhower High School and Lawton High School wrote research papers about what they determined to be the most significant invention in human history. Each team consisting of up to six students selected their topic and collectively wrote a 10-page paper to support their thesis. Those papers were evaluated by the Cameron University Social Science Department and the ratings were 50 percent of the team’s final score.

Nine teams advanced to the second round where the teams underwent an oral defense of their paper to two Cameron panels consisting of Dr. W. Douglas Catterall, Dr. Edris Montalvo, Dr. Sarah Eppler Janda and Professor Travis Childs.

Owen Sasser and Raymond Scott prepared teams from Eisenhower and Anna Kirchen coached teams from Lawton High. Numerous faculty members from both schools also assisted. Dr. Lance Janda coordinated and hosted the event at Cameron and presented the students with their medals.

The event was created in 2014 to give students experience in university-level academic challenges and to exercise their group problem-solving skills.

The results are:

Superior rating and gold medals: LHS team of Alisson Alvarado, DeMarcus Humphrey and Jessica Nuth with a topic of Greek language; LHS team of Daniel Polichetti, Chance Harmon, Candace Spencer, Samaya Greene and Ryan Kaiser with a topic of tanks; LHS team of Adalie Capistrano, Joanna Lee and Malakai Diamond-Walls with a topic of automobiles.

Excellent rating and silver medals: EHS team of Devyon Padilla, Dillon Means and James Cordova with a topic of steam power; LHS team of Colten Toscano, Jillian Redford and Riva Gandhi with a topic of smallpox vaccine; LHS team of Breelie Ellis, Felecia Gunn, Ariel Peralta and Hailey Underwood with a topic of astronomy.

Commendable rating and bronze medals: EHS team of Jaydon Palmer, Logan Frazier, Jessie Winnans and David Perez with a topic of radio; EHS team of Lauren Mercer, Daniel Boatwright, Emma White and Leslie Alvarez Rios with a topic of nuclear weaponry; LHS team of Leila McAnerney, Sean Jones, Alyssia Diaz and Greyson Hyde with a topic of electricity in China.