[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 60 (Thursday, April 23, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H2456-H2457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE BELL STREET MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE OLYMPIAD TEAM UPON 
    WINNING ITS 13TH CONSECUTIVE SCIENCE OLYMPIAD STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bost). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Duncan) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize 
an exceptional group of students, teachers, and parents of the Bell 
Street Middle School Science Olympiad Team, which just won their 13th 
consecutive Science Olympiad State championship. Let me repeat that: 
the 13th straight Science Olympiad State championship, a remarkable 
group of parents, teachers, and students.
  The Science Olympiad program is one of the premier science 
competition programs in the Nation, which for the past 31 years has 
been dedicated to interscholastic academic competition that provides a 
series of individual and team events requiring the knowledge of 
scientific facts, concepts, processes, skills, and science 
applications. They provide constantly changing challenges to nearly 
7,000 teams across all 50 States that allow for students to be exposed 
to a variety of career choices while meeting practicing scientists and 
life-changing mentors.
  The Bell Street Middle School in Clinton, South Carolina, began 
competing in this competition in 1986. The Science Olympiad team here 
was founded by three exceptional teachers: Dr. Rosemary Wicker, Dr. 
David O'Shields, and Michael Mack. Mr. Mack and Dr. David O'Shields 
still work in the school district today, and Dr. O'Shields is the 
superintendent of Laurens County School District 56. He continues to be 
a part of the team and coaches the Bell Street Middle School Science 
Olympiad.
  Many of the Bell Street Science Olympiad alumni have gone on to be 
extremely successful in the fields of science and technology. One 
example is Elizabeth Humbert, who went on to obtain a master's degree 
in geology at the University of Tennessee and later went on to help 
manage mastodon excavation at the Paleontological Research Institution 
in Ithaca, New York. She also participated in the Hyde Park Mastodon 
Project, which was the discovery of the most complete mastodon to date. 
She has spent countless hours working in outreach to students through 
helping to build the Museum of the Earth and through an outreach 
position at Cornell University for NASA, through which she helped build 
the STEM internships across the State of New York for underrepresented 
students.
  Today Elizabeth is living on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, 
developing a class for upper elementary school students on their 
regional ecology and geology. When asked about her love for science, 
Elizabeth states: My building block, my love for learning, my discovery 
that I could do what I found interesting, dates specifically back to 
Bell Street Middle School and to our Challenge classes, to enjoying the 
freedom and the open-ended research it offered and to Science Olympiad 
and the connections it created.

[[Page H2457]]

  Of her experience participating in Science Olympiad, she states it 
provided her with ``the feeling that being different might not be a 
burden, but a great blessing and an exciting path to follow. Science 
for me has always been that exciting path and perhaps an unusual one in 
1994. I have been so glad to see more women in the field in these last 
20 years. I know Science Olympiad fosters that in all students and 
creates visions of possibilities that really exist,'' she said.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that her statement sums up how valuable this 
organization has been and continues to be to our Nation's youth.
  This year's students are continuing this history of success and 
innovation with their first-place finishes in 11 of the State 
competition's 20 events. One event in particular required students to 
create a wheeled vehicle that could travel a specific distance in the 
shortest amount of time. This year the length of the track was longer 
than in previous years, and there was a coffee can placed in the middle 
of the track. I have got a graphic here to kind of show you what that 
is. Students lost points if the car went over the finish line or didn't 
stop close enough to it.
  In order to be successful in this event, Dillon Snead created a 
formula based on what he is learning in his geometry class. He created 
a triangle with a square ruler which he accurated with his car and then 
used a formula to calculate the distance from the starting point--
starting point being here--to the ending point. This allowed him to 
create an arch with a point 1/12th of the total distance.
  Using this formula, Dillon and his partner, Alyssa Shiflet, were able 
to create a car that stopped 2 centimeters away from the finish line, 
winning the team first place. This victory helped the team achieve 
the overall first place award at the State competition.

  You can look at this Web site and actually watch a video. They had to 
take a motorized vehicle that they created, calculate the distance, the 
energy, and the radius to go around an obstacle in the middle of the 
path, and they stopped it at the other end within 1 centimeter of the 
finish line. This is an eighth-grade student that did this, helping his 
class win the first place. I think Dillon Snead's mathematic abilities 
are tremendous. I would like to congratulate him.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to finally take this opportunity to congratulate 
all the coaches and members of this year's Science Olympiad team from 
School District 56's Bell Street Middle School on their 13th 
consecutive State championship. I will try to read their names without 
stumbling. If I do, students, I apologize:
  Sydney Argoe, Victor Barcenas, Jordan Barker, Sean Bell, Jonathan 
Braswell, Sienna Brent, Jakiya Campbell, Erin Caughman, Justin Easter, 
Mason Gibbs, Cole Gresham, Karl Gustafson, Anjela Gutierrez, Grace 
Johnson, Matthew Lane, Dequan Lindsay, Patrick Nelson, Toni Parenti, 
Jakob Pountain, Tytajha Robinson, Alyssa Shiflet, Dillon Snead, Destiny 
Spoone, Bailey Stephens, Maren Vondergeest, Nathan Vondergeest, Gary 
Walsh, Caitlyn Watson, David Wilkie, and Kari Young.
  These are all the students on that team, Mr. Speaker, and while I 
don't have all the names of their parents and the teachers, I want to 
congratulate them as well and thank them for their efforts in helping 
create our future scientists and innovators, and for challenging these 
middle school students to be the very best they can be. You see, these 
things don't happen overnight. These Science Olympiad teams train 
weekend after weekend, spending Saturdays and sometimes Sunday 
afternoons with the teachers and the parents involved, figuring all 
these mathematic formulas out and figuring out this science.
  I also want to wish the best of luck to all of you as you make your 
way to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the national competition, which is in 
May.
  I would like to end by saying: May God continue to bless these 
students, their teachers, and their parents; may God put a hedge of 
protection over them as they travel; may God continue to bless Bell 
Street Middle School; and may God continue to bless the United States 
of America.

                              {time}  1400


                      Honoring John T. Duncan, Sr.

  I would also like to take this opportunity to finish my comments here 
today talking about one of my heroes. My dad passed away Tuesday, a 
week ago, from complications with Alzheimer's. It is a terrible 
disease. The Alzheimer's Association and others are working hard to 
come up with a cure for that.
  My dad was an amazing man. He was a 1961 graduate of Clemson 
University, the first in his family to finish college. He went on to 
send my brother and me to Clemson as well. My brother has one son that 
has graduated from Clemson, one that is attending, and I have one that 
is attending. That is because of my father.
  We have a saying at Clemson that our ``blood runneth orange.'' When 
they prepared my dad's body, I believe they found his blood to truly 
runneth orange because of his love for our alma mater, and that is 
Clemson University.
  My dad studied industrial management, textiles emphasis. He went on 
to be a plant manager and supervisor and, ultimately, vice president at 
Arkwright Mills in textiles.
  He used to carry a marble in his pocket. I think that was the 
philosophy that helped him succeed not only in life as a general 
manager or a plant manager or supervisor in the textile industry, not 
as a member of the community, not as a father, but just as a human 
being. That is a marble that had a saying on it that was given to us by 
Jesus Christ, and that is:

       Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

  Let us treat others the way that we would want to be treated. I think 
my dad used that philosophy as he walked the plant floor in the textile 
mills that he oversaw. I think he treated the people that were pushing 
the brooms or working on the looms or the spinning frames or actually 
weaving and spinning or actually the supervisors, I think he treated 
them all the same.
  I think my dad treated them the way that he would want to be treated 
if he was pushing that broom or if he was working on that spinning 
frame or if he was actually a weaver and supervisor.
  Treat others the way you want to be treated. I think if we are able 
to do that in life, I think we will go far. I think it is a great 
motto. It is inspiration to me, so I will try to treat others as well.
  My dad was one of my heroes. I lost him on April 14 of this year, 
Tuesday, a week ago. I am going to miss him. He was proud of what I 
did, proud of what I have been able to accomplish, proud of me serving 
this great country that he loved so much, the United States of America.
  If he was at home, he would be sitting in front of the TV, watching 
C-SPAN, watching me give this speech; and he would be proud.
  Thank you. God bless you. May God bless America.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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