By Neil Pierson

Jyoti Bawa isn’t spending her summer vacation curled up on the couch or sunning herself on a beach – she’s actively pursuing ways to help her students under-stand science.

Bawa, who’s entering her sixth year as a science teacher at the Renaissance School of Art and Reasoning in Sammamish, spent a large chunk of July at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. She was one of 27 teachers from across the Puget Sound region who participated in the center’s 23rd annual Science Education Partnership, which gives teachers a chance to work side-by-side with research scien-tists in a laboratory setting.

After embarking upon her National Board Certification last year, Bawa began reflecting upon her many responsibilities as a public educator, and felt she had one glaring weakness.

“I’ve been doing great with my kids and preparing lessons and all,” she said, “but I have not grown professionally.”

She sought help from fellow science teachers at Eastlake High School, where most of Bawa’s middle-school students end up. They highly recommended the

Science Education Partnership to help Bawa improve her cur-riculum.

Bawa said many of her sixth-grade students last year were intrigued by her diversity of life

unit, in which they learned about cell structures, nucleic acids and replication. Bawa wanted to pick up some hands-on applications for her classroom, something she felt was missing from her own

middle-school and high-school education.

Fred Hutchinson has brought in more than 400 teachers dur-ing the 23-year history of SEP, lessons that have theoretically fil-

tered down to more than 300,000 students. The cancer research center is also hoping students develop their scientific aptitudes and become more likely to pur-sue career fields like biochemis-try, genetics or molecular biol-ogy.

The partnership got started because teachers often struggle to connect with expert scientists, director Nancy Hutchison said.

“Those relationships don’t come out of what you do in col-lege,” Hutchison said. “Teachers wanted to be in research labs for a bit. They didn’t want to become graduate students, but they want-ed a chance to get immersed in that real experience of being in a research lab.”

Bawa spent several days work-ing alongside a scientist at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. She got a glimpse into how drugs like morphine and codeine sup-press pain, and ways to minimize side effects such as addiction and sleep apnea.

She and the scientist worked together to create mutant DNA cells, replacing a key binding receptor, histidine, with other amino acids. The research could lead to medications that are

COMMUNITY6 l August 7, 2013 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

6

ContributedEastlake’s varsity cheer squad cheered on runners at the June 22 Rock and Roll Marathon in Seattle. The cheerleaders were at the three-mile mark, along with their coaches. This is the second year the squad was on hand to cheer the runners.

Eastlake cheers on runners

By Neil Pierson

When it comes to this week-end’s Sammamish Days and Sammamish Nights events, there’s something for literally everyone to do, regardless of their age, gender or hobbies.

The city’s annual celebration will be taking place Aug. 10, and there’s a cornucopia of activi-ties for the senses: Food from all corners of the world, colorful art in all mediums, and interactive games and performances.

Sammamish Days

The day gets going early: The first activity, the Sammamish Adventure Race to Understand Autism, starts at 8 a.m. Activities and run until mid-afternoon.

Dawn Sanders, the city’s vol-unteer coordinator, offers a tip: Park at Mary, Queen of Peace

Catholic Church and make the short walk to City Hall. Depending on the weather, the city expects anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500 people to turn out.

Early birds should check out the Challenge Day Race spon-sored by the Sammamish Rotary Club. Roughly two dozen physi-cally and mentally disabled chil-dren will be racing soapbox derby cars down the hill on Southeast 24th Street next to Discovery Elementary School. Races run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Donations are welcome – they go to Life Enrichment Options, a local nonprofit group that assists people with developmental dis-abilities.

“We’re really trying to get more people to go out and watch those kids, cheer them on as they race down the hill,” Sanders said.

Sammamish set to celebrate with food, drink, games galore

See DAYS, Page 11

Science teacher gets up close with lab experiments

ContributedJyoti Bawa conducts an experiment during her week at Fred Hutch.

See BAWA, Page 11

SportS12 l August 7, 2013 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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By Neil Pierson

When Andrew Evans is strapped into the seat of his 1,600 cc Spectrum Honda and is breez-ing down a straightaway at 140 mph, life is perfect.

“It’s a passion, and I love doing it,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

Evans, a 15-year-old student at Skyline High School, has had gasoline vapors in his blood since he first began racing go karts eight years ago. What originally started as a hobby, however, has rocketed into the category of potential career after he became the youngest driver in the history of Lynx Racing Academy, which Evans describes as “one of the most highly-decorated Formula Atlantic teams of all time.”

Since his signing with Lynx in April, Evans has had a chance to compete in some high-octane environments. Alongside team-mate Alex Keyes of Folsom, Calif., he’s put in some strong performances in the 2013 Pacific Formula F1600 series, which encompasses 15 races over six

weekends at four West Coast tracks.

With four races left, Keyes and Evans are holding their own: Keyes sits in third place with 187 points and Evans is fourth with 173. The season continues Sept. 7-8 in Buttonwillow, Calif., and Oct. 4-6 in Las Vegas.

Each of the F1600 stops is comprised of two or three races, and Evans has found himself with a top five finish eight times thus far. It’s a good start to what he hopes will blossom into bigger things, although he admits he has a lot of choices to make.

Becoming a professional driver has many paths, and he could lean toward closed-wheel rac-ing like NASCAR or open-wheel racing like Indy cars or Formula One. Many professional circuits have feeder systems that Evans would have to navigate, similar to a baseball player working through the minor leagues.

Evans has offers from multiple teams for next season, but he hasn’t made a decision yet.

“It’s a matter of finding the correct people we’re going with

for next year,” he said. “But Lynx Racing has given me an opportu-nity this year, and it’s just been fantastic so far.”

Evans and Keyes have earned plaudits from Lynx Racing offi-cials, who hadn’t fielded an acad-emy racing team for nine years. Neither driver has won yet, but each led a race for the first time during June’s trip to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

“We’re very pleased with the progress that Alex and Andrew are making,” co-owner Peggy Haas said in a news release.

“The educational philosophy that provides the foundation of the Lynx Racing Academy is proving to be just as relevant and powerful as it was back when we were winning Atlantic Championships and graduating drivers to IndyCar,” co-owner Jackie Doty said.

The Spectrum cars that Evans and Keyes race feature a Honda engine, and are developed out-side of the U.S. Evans said the cars have suspensions, a key

Hot wheels: Racing career accelerating for Skyline student

ContributedAndrew Evans sits on his open wheel racer. The Skyline stu-dent is considering a career in racing. See RACE, Page 13

By Neil Pierson

For many years, Washington has been sending teams to the U.S. Lacrosse under-15 national championships, but never has a girls squad done as well as this year’s SuperStix Lacrosse Club.

SuperStix – which is mainly comprised of Sammamish and Issaquah residents – finished 13th out of 32 teams at the national tournament held July 23-25 at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

It’s the highest finish for any Washington team in the history of the event, said head coach and athletics director Chris Ramirez.

Although the team’s 2-3 record wasn’t spectacular, the fact they stuck with more established programs from the East Coast and Midwest was impressive. All three of the losses SuperStix sustained were against foes that reached the quarterfinals.

“That’s a good sign of the level of competition from the girls we brought down,” Ramirez said.

SuperStix opened with an 11-1 victory over Virginia’s Storm Select. After losing 11-3 to Elevate (N.Y.), they bounced back with a 14-7 triumph over the Detroit Coyotes.

Their tournament run ended with losses to opponents from Maryland (10-4) and Pennsylvania/New Jersey (13-4). Ramirez felt the struggles they had stemmed from a lack of cohesiveness.

The entire 20-player roster only practiced together once before leaving for Florida.

“We really couldn’t test what we had because many of the girls were committed to other pro-grams,” he said.

However, there was plenty of success to celebrate. The players adapted to a fast pace, which Ramirez instilled during

practices. He knew the heat and humidity might get to them, so conditioning and sprinting were

important.“We kind of push a really fast

tempo, because we figure most of

the 20 girls we have on the team

Local girls lacrosse making strides on national stage

ContributedThe SuperStix Lacrosse Club is putting Washington girls lacrosse on the national map.

See LACROSSE, Page 13