Welcome to Palmer’s Pre-AP Incentive Program website. Here you will receive regular updates about the program, application information, and upcoming events. Please explore the various sections of this website to find out more about the academic focus of the program, as well as information about the many different trips, camps, activities and events that occur within the Pre-AP Incentive Program. If you have any questions, please click on “Contact”.
For more information about the school in general, please visit the main school website at:
CAMP SQUAMISH 2017:
For the 2017/18 school year, our annual Camp Squamish trip has been moved up one week. Rather than during the traditional Thanksgiving week in the second week of October, this year’s camp will be in the first week of October, from Wednesday, Oct.4 to Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. As usual, Incentive Grade 8, 9 and 10 students will participate in this trip, together with a select group of Incentive Grade 11 and 12 mentors and supervising teachers. Information will be sent home with students in early September.
Incentive students who will be in Grade 11 or 12 this September may apply NOW for a mentor position by going to the link below for an application form. This form must be printed, completed and submitted to Mr. Wong or Mrs. Calaciura by Friday, September 8, 2017 (or scanned and emailed earlier to Mr. Wong at awong@sd38.bc.ca).
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO 2017 MATH CONTESTS (Pascal/Cayley/Fermat)
On Tuesday, February 28th, 2017, over 100 Palmer students (joined by a few Grade 7 students who have been attending our Junior Math Club meetings) wrote the annual University of Waterloo Math contests for Grades 8-11 (the Pascal Contest for Grades 8 and 9; Cayley Contest for Grade 10; and Fermat Contest for Grade 11). Students were packed into Palmer’s main lounge for the 8:30AM start of the one-hour contest, and they busily spent the next hour calculating and problem-solving their way to the solutions. Contest papers were then sent away to the University of Waterloo for marking and statistical analysis, and results should be known by mid-April. Certificate awards will be presented in each contest to students who place in the top 25% of all students who wrote the contests in Canada. In addition, the top student at Palmer on each contest will be presented with a school champion medal. Top schools in each zone, province, or in the country may earn championship plaques.
Junior Math Teams Compete at Math Challengers Tournament at UBC
Palmer’s two junior Math teams competed at the annual Lower Mainland Regional Math Challengers tournament at UBC on Saturday, February 18th, 2017. After several hours and rounds of problem solving, it proved to be a very successful day as both Palmer teams and a number of our individual students picked up several trophies and medals. The Grade 9’s earned a third place finish in their pool, and the Grade 8’s finished in first in theirs.
In addition, team members Jonah Chen and Jonathan Cao placed sixth and second respectively in the Grade 9 individual standings, while Grade 8 team member Nicholas To individually placed tenth overall. Amazingly, two Grade 7 General Currie Elementary students who are members of our Grade 8 team and Junior Math Club (Edward Zeng and Kevin Yan) individually placed second and first overall in the Grade 8 pool. All of our Grade 8 and 9 individual standouts competed in the exciting Face-Off round at the end of the competition, where contestants competed one-on-one in a buzz-in quiz-show-styled round similar to that of the TV show Jeopardy! Congratulations to all the team members and student coaches, and good luck at the provincial finals at SFU on April 8th!
Grade 8 Team members: Cyrus Pang, Nicholas To, Ricky Tsai, Kevin Yan, Edward Zeng
Grade 9 Team members: Jonathan Cao, Jonah Chen, Eric Fan, Kyle Qi, Cindy Zhong
Student Coaches: Jason Bai, Christy Chan, Tina Fang, Morris Huang, Liang Liu, Joseph Strong, Frank Wang, Andrew Xie
Palmer’s 11th Annual Science Fair – The Wonder Kids
The longest running Science Fair in Richmond, Palmer’s Science Fair highlighted an amazing number of experiments and inventions.
Mohammed Al-Seragi emerged as the top grade 8 with his project to capture toxic lead in water. Do you like tying your laces? If not, then use Nathan Ticman and Nicolas To’ invention to tie them for you! They placed second in grade 8, just ahead of Sabrina Teng and Joan Liu’s experiments with detergents.
In the grade 9 category, Abdurrahmaan Abdulaziz and Julien Mo created and tested coffee ground furniture to capture first place and special drone prizes. In environmental engineering, Michael Lee and Dickson Huang used electromagnetic waves to repair and build coral for their second place project. Finally Christin Ye and Anna Sorokina’s explored how temperature gradients can generate electricity.
The top three grade nine teams and Mohammed are competing in the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair at UBC, April 6-8, where last year Palmer was the Top School in the number of awards won.
CAMP SQUAMISH 2016
The Incentive Grade 8, 9 and 10 classes recently returned from our annual Fall retreat, held from Wednesday, October 12th to Friday, October 14th at the Easter Seal camp on the shores of the Squamish River in Brackendale, BC. Throughout the three days, our teaching staff and student campers were treated to a mix of glorious sunshine as well as stormy autumn weather!
During camp, the students were put into nine multigrade teams of nine or ten students each, together with a Grade 11 or 12 Incentive student who acted as a team mentor. The teams then went through a series of activities designed to promote team-building and the formation of connections between students in different grades in the Pre-AP/Incentive Program. Aided by the mentors, Palmer Pre-AP/Incentive teachers ran carefully planned activities that centred around this year’s theme of “Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)”. Activities included teacher-led team-building games, a simulation game based on The Hero’s Journey, a critical-thinking treasure hunt, a First Nations drum-making workshop led by Squamish resident Tsawaysia Spukwus, a mentor-led team-building session, a chant-writing and performing session, a creative-thinking Destination Imagination Instant Challenge, and of course the traditional campfire sing-alongs. Some of the activities allowed teams to earn points, which were tallied at the end of the two-and-a-half days to determine the top team at camp. In addition, teams were assigned into three Houses (Cheakamus, Chilcotin and Cowichan), each consisting of three teams, and the House with the highest aggregate team points at the end was awarded the Camp Squamish Grafton Cup as the Top House.
At the end of a close and intense but friendly competition, it was Team 8 (led by Grade 11 mentor Eric Kuo) who won the Top Team medals, while Cowichan (comprised of Teams 7, 8 and 9) won the trophy for Top House.
Kudos and thanks to the following mentors for their excellent work at camp: Joanne Chi, Rachel Ku, Amanda Kuo, Eric Kuo, Ryan Lam, Andrew Lee, Cecilia Lee, Oscar Liu, Vandy Liu, Antonio Pablo, and Joey Wong! Kudos as well to the teachers who were involved in the organization and planning for camp, and who accompanied the Pre-AP/Incentive students for the three days: Mrs. Calaciura, Ms. Epp, Ms. Naidu, Mr. Sidhu and Mr. Wong. Everyone is already eagerly looking forward to next year’s Camp Squamish!
The winning house at Camp Squamish 2016: Cowichan!
The Top Team (Team #8) at Camp Squamish 2016, together with Palmer staff.
Outdoor team games in the glorious October sunshine!
Laser fence challenge in The Hero’s Journey.
Drum-making workshop.
Deciphering treasure hunt clues.
DI tower building challenge.
DI non-verbal communication challenge.
River-crossing challenge in The Hero’s Journey.
Campfire singalong.
2015/16 Slideshow
RC Palmer is the TOP School in the 2016 Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair (GVRSF) at UBC
As unbelievable as it sounds, one of the smallest public schools in Richmond and the GVRSF took home the top number of prizes and medals on Saturday, April 9th, 2016. Out of 54 schools and over 250 projects in the GVRSF, students from Palmer’s Pre-AP/Incentive Program won six division awards and 10 special awards for their seven projects entered.
Ray L. won his third Gold at the GVRSF for the creation of his Solvent-Polymer Deposition 3D Printer. He is one of the 16 top projects selected for the upcoming Canada Wide Fair. His other awards this year are the: David Laughame Award, BCIC Young Innovator Scholarship, UBC Department of Physics and Chemistry Scholarship, UBC Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering Award, and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC Award.
In the Intermediate division, Grade 10 students Annabelle W. and Isabelle C. won Silver for their work with thermochromic pigments. They are looking to patent their technology that could have wide application in temperature regulation for houses and passively reduce energy used for heating and cooling.
Grade 10’s Ada C. and Allison C. received Honorable Mention along with the BC Nature Award and the Betsy Bennet Marine Stewardship Award for their study on an oil spill absorbing device.
Placing Bronze in the intermediate Division, our grade 9’s Lina Y. and Zakiya A.’s project Colour-phyll, was noted for Ingenuity in winning the Society for Canadian Women In Science and Technology (SWIST) Award and the SFU Department of Chemistry Award.
Grade 9 students Jason P. and Andrew X. created bioplastics from chitin and chitosan in winning Silver medals and the UBC Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Award.
Our Grade 8 team of Jonah C. and Eric F. came away with Honorable Mention for the creation and testing of polarizing privacy filters for LCD screens.
Grade 10 student Olivia L. from Earl Marriott Secondary School won Gold and three Special Awards. Her total is not included in the above scores summary, but Olivia was doing Science Fairs at Palmer in Grade 8 and part of Grade 9 before she moved to Surrey. This will be her second year going to the Canada Wide Fair as well. We consider her an Honorary Palmer Griffin!
Palmer is celebrating its 10th year in the GVRSF this year and this year’s remarkable result caps the tradition of excellence in the Sciences at Palmer. In the past nine years, Palmer Pre-AP/Incentive students have won five golds at the Canada-wise Fair and been the top science fair school in Richmond School District.
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO 2016 MATH CONTEST RESULTS
The official results have arrived from the University of Waterloo for the Pascal, Cayley and Fermat Math Contests. These contests were written back in February by approximately 85 Palmer Grade 8, 9, 10 and 11 students.
On the Grade 11 Fermat Contest, congratulations to Brian H., Morris H. and Frank F. as the top three students at Palmer, and to Brian as the school champion. Palmer’s Fermat team placed 5th out of the 14 schools in our zone of Richmond-Delta.
On the Grade 10 Cayley Contest, the top three Palmer students are Jason B., Beckett Z. and Paul Z., and congratulations to Jason as the school champion. The Cayley team placed 4th in Richmond-Delta.
And on the Grade 9 Pascal Contest (also written by Grade 8 students), the top three Palmer students are Jonathan C. in Grade 8 (who is also the school champion), followed by Frank W. and Liang L. in Grade 9. The Pascal team placed FIRST in our zone, thus earning a Zone Championship! In addition, Palmer’s Grade 9 team made the Canadian Honour Roll by placing 33rd out of the 1300 schools in Canada that wrote the Pascal Contest.
On each of the three contests, Palmer students who place in the top 25% of all the contestants in Canada will receive a Certificate of Distinction at the Awards Ceremony in June. The names of these students will be posted shortly outside Mr. Wong’s room.
Congratulations to all of Palmer’s Math contest award winners and contestants!
Palmer’s Junior Math Teams Place in the Top 10 at the 2016 Math Challengers Provincial Finals
On Saturday, April 9th, Palmer’s Grade 8 and 9 Math teams competed at the annual Math Challengers Provincial Finals tournament held at UBC.
After a challenging day of problem solving, Palmer’s Grade 9 team finished 9th out of the 20 schools that qualified for the Provincial Finals, and our Grade 8 team finished 6th in the province, again out of 20 teams. In addition, Palmer’s Jonathan C. individually came in 8th in the province out of approximately 110 Grade 8 competitors, and Kevin Y. (a Grade 6 student from General Currie Elementary – one of Palmer’s feeder elementary schools – who attends Palmer’s Junior Math Club) finished 3rd overall.
Palmer was one of only five schools that managed to place both their Grade 8 and 9 teams in the Top 10 in the province.
Kudos to both Math teams (rosters are below), and to student coaches Morris H., Tina F., Emily G., Jason B. and Joseph S. for their dedicated work and assistance with the teams!
Grade 8 Team: Jonathan C., Eric F., Derrick S., Kevin Y. (Currie) & Edward Z. (Currie)
Grade 9 Team: Christy C., Liang L., Tiffany T., Frank W., & Andrew X.
Palmer’s 2016 Grade 8 & 9 Math Challengers Teams & Student Coaches
Jonathan C. (Grade 8 Team, 8th place individual finish)
Palmer Grade 9 Team Competes at the 2016 BCDI Provincial Finals Tournament
On Saturday, April 9th, 2016, Palmer’s Grade 9 Destination Imagination (DI) team competed at the BC DI provincial finals tournament, which was held at Kwantlen Park Secondary School in Surrey.
The team’s challenge was to create and present a “whodunit?” mystery story set on Earth in a time period before 1990, complete with sets, props and costuming. The mystery story had to include three suspect characters and a technical clue of the team’s design that helped to solve the mystery. In addition, the team had to solve an instant challenge problem on-site for which they had no prior knowledge.
Competing in a division against teams from Grades 9 to 12, Palmer’s Grade 9’s came in 4th, just missing out on a 3rd place trophy by 5 points, or the equivalent of one-and-a-half percent in scoring. Kudos to the team for their terrific presentation, and to student coaches Jana C. and Maggie Y. for their hard work and assistance.
Team members: Zakiya A., Carolyn G., Angela M., Leo T. & Crystal W.
