Posted on: Tuesday, May 4, 2004

Iolani, Kahuku excel in academic contests

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Iolani senior Kelly Nakamura may have led her team to the top 16 at the National Science Bowl but she's still worried about the AP Physics final she must take this week.

"I guess when you sit down and do the problems, the problems are more difficult," the 17-year-old Nakamura said yesterday by telephone from Chevy Chase, Md. "Physics will be difficult for us. Well, maybe most of us. It will be hard."

Iolani was one of two Hawai'i schools — Kahuku High School was the other — that received national honors in academic competition over the weekend.

Kahuku was among 10 teams out of 51 nationwide to advance from the first round Saturday and Sunday in Arlington, Va., in a competition called We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution. That contest focuses on students' knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

But the Hawai'i team did not snag one of the top three places after the two-part championship round in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Kahuku shared honorable-mention status with six other schools.

East Brunswick High School of East Brunswick, N.J., was the national winner.

Nakamura said the Science Bowl competition requires quick thinking on an array of questions that include biology, chemistry, earth science, astronomy, math and, oh yes, don't forget physics. The questions keep getting harder all the time.

"It's very much a speed thing," she said. "It depends on how alert you are and how focused you are."

The Iolani team also included junior Ryan Tsukamoto, 16, of Hawai'i Kai, and seniors Franklyn Lau, 18, of Palolo, and Carol Pham, 17, of Honolulu.

Team coach Susan Nishiura, a biology teacher at Iolani, said her students will keep studying.

"They have been doing their physics homework and I have been administering makeup exams."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.