George Rebane

The third annual merit scholarship examination for Nevada County’s high school seniors pursuing technology careers is scheduled for 4 April 2009 at the Nevada Union High School.  The merit part of this scholarship is somewhat unique today since the measure of merit is given by the students themselves instead of a committee looking at the candidate students’ resumes.  Sponsored by SESF (Sierra Environmental Studies Foundation), TechTest is a four-hour written examination of math and science questions which requires a student to apply skills learned in the classroom to new problems usually not encountered at the high school level.  In other words, if you’ve learned to use a hammer and saw to build a dog house; can you now use the same tools to build a gazebo?  You can get a better idea by examining last year’s TechTest2008 here.

The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what your gender or ethnic background or community service history or … is, your chance to win a scholarship is based solely on how you score on that examination.  Kinda like real life used to be.

This year SESF will again award $15,000 worth of scholarships with the top three scores pulling down $6,000, $4,000, and $2,000.  The next ten highest scores will each get $300.  The test will be administered and graded by the TechTest Academic Committee of high school teachers chaired by Mr. John McDaniel, NUHS’s award winning physics teacher.  The only requirement for a county high school senior to take the test is that s/he be qualified by his/her science or math teacher.

The test will be administered in the NUHS Science Lecture Hall between the hours of 9AM and 1PM.  In addition to calculators and blue books, students are allowed and encouraged to bring two hand-written letter-sized ‘cheat sheets’ containing any material they deem important (The intentionally busy background of the TechTest2009 poster nearby is a real cheat sheet that I composed and was allowed to bring to a final examination at UCLA.)   Thus armed, the scholarship candidates will bend to their considerable task on an exam designed to yield top scores in the 50 to 60% range.  This allows the students to concentrate on problems they can do the best on, and it lets the eagles really soar.  The exam’s four hour length assures that the candidates will ‘run out of brains’ before they run out of time.

TechTest was launched by SESF to fill a void in the county’s considerable scholarship programs.  The wealth generation that ultimately determines the quality of life in our nation derives primarily from the development and application of science and technology.  This scholarship program is a local grass roots effort to encourage and aid our qualified young people as they launch careers in this critically important area.  For more information, please contact your local science/math teacher or Mr. John McDaniel (jmcdaniel@njuhsd.com).  And please spread the word about this unintentionally best kept secret in Nevada County.