Wayzata Central Middle School
Wayzata Central Middle School
Polly Laugen, Coach
Coach Polly Laugen has taught in the Wayzata School District for thirteen years. In that time, she has taught sixth grade physical science, seventh grade life science, and eighth grade earth science. She has been a Science Bowl coach at Central Middle School for four years. Prior to teaching, Coach Laugen worked as a microbiologist at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota and at the Ecolab Research Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. She enjoys spending time with family at the cabin in Northern Minnesota, skiing in Colorado, playing golf, reading, watching hockey games, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and taking her dog to the dog park! Coach Laugen loves dogs, trying different salsas, and dolphins (even though she was bitten by one once)!
Aaratrika Mondal
Aaratrika Mondal is an eighth-grader that loves STEM. Her favorite subjects are biology and math. Outside of school, her passion is Kathak, which is an Indian classical dance. She participates in dance competitions and performs in her community. She loves to listen to music and read. Some of her achievements include making it to the MATHCOUNTS state competition in 2021 and 2022 and winning first in district at the American Mathematics Competition. She has previously competed in Science Bowl at the national level in 2021.
Kevin Qiu
Kevin Qiu is an eighth-grader that loves STEM and is very strong in math. His hobbies are reading, math, hockey, and video games. This is his first time participating in the National Science Bowl Competition!
Pughazh Saravanan
Pughazh Saravanan is an eighth-grader who is interested in science, robotics, and mechanical engineering. He loves Science Bowl and is participating for his second year. His favorite topics of science are physics and chemistry. He likes to build things with legos and likes to code. He has learned HTML, Python, CSS, and JavaScript. He has participated in the First Lego League for three years. He mostly built the robot for the team and programmed it. He has won regionals and gone to states twice. He also likes to ride his bike and is very interested in how objects work.
Tanush Thimmasani
Tanush Thimmasani is an eighth-grader at Wayzata Central Middle School. He has been participating in the Science Bowl since sixth grade, and has always expressed a love for science. Outside of school Tanush plays soccer and baseball, and enjoys playing chess with his friends. He especially enjoys watching football, his favorite team being the Minnesota Vikings. His favorite science topic is evolutionary biology.
Vedant Gupta
Vedant Gupta is a current seventh-grader at Wayzata Central Middle School. This is his second year participating in the Science Bowl club. Vedant enjoys playing tennis, drawing/painting, and playing with his dog. Winning the Regional Science Bowl competition has been one of his biggest accomplishments and he is so proud of each individual on the team! They all did their part during the competition and worked as a team! Vedant says that overall the experience has been great and he hopes to continue participating in Science Bowl in the future!
