This Saturday, Los Altos High School’s Advanced Science Investigation class is departing to London for a week to present their scientific findings to Tonbridge School and explore international culture, according to Elizabeth Pyle, a chemistry and biology teacher at Los Altos High who will be chaperoning the trip.
ASI, a class focused on allowing students to work on individual science projects year round, has held this London trip consistently for the last several years, with the most recent trips being in 2023 and 2019. The main purpose of the trip is for students to explore the Symposium in Tonbridge, according to Pyle.
“Our schedule is pretty packed outside the [Tonbridge] symposium,” ASI student and Los Altos High senior Avni Rajagopal said. “I’m pretty excited, and I think it’s [the London trip] a really cool opportunity that we have.”
While the Tonbridge Symposium is the main event of the trip, Pyle said students will have opportunities to attend a Forensics and computing workshop, visit Stonehenge and explore many historical museums.
“What spurs the trip is the international event at Tonbridge, [but] that’s not the sole purpose of the trip,” Pyle said. “It’s a lot of STEM but a lot of fun as well.”
The trip was planned this year after ASI students emailed teachers expressing interest in going on the trip. According to Pyle, meetings, paperwork, collecting student travel materials and recruiting other chaperones comprised the bulk of the planning. In total, 33 students will be attending.
“One of my goals as the trip lead is to make sure that the kids are doing meaningful reflection and they understand what an amazing opportunity it is to go international…and meet teens from around the world who are doing similar research,” Pyle said.
This trip allows ASI students to get practice presenting their research before ASI’s main annual event, the local Synopsis Science Fair. This yearly event allows for ASI students to present their research to judges and win awards, Rajagopal said, and students’ research ranges from chemistry to computer science related research.
“[The trip] is going to be a really good experience [to] try out some of the different things I want to do when I present,” Rajagopal said.
Rajagopal said beyond presenting, ASI students are looking forward to seeing Tonbridge’s research and exploring the culture in London.
“I’m really excited to hear about what the students over at Tunbridge are doing, because I know it’s a very different perspective coming from a completely different country and school,” Rajagopal said. “It will be a really interesting experience.”
