ANAHEIM HILLS : Canyon High Team in National Contest

A group of Canyon High School students are semifinalists in a national science contest for their ideas about an implantable computer chip that would monitor its wearer’s well-being and alert medical help in case of problems.

The contest, which drew 4,500 entries, asks students of all grade levels to take an existing technology and project it 20 years into the future.

The Canyon High team is the only one from Orange County among the 48 semifinalists. Each team has received $500 to make a video of their entry, and 12 finalists will be honored at a ceremony in Washington in June.

Canyon High’s team is composed of four students--Kristie Armentrout, Debbie Hehir, Heath Kula and Vic Kapoor. They are all juniors or seniors and participate in the school’s pre-engineering program.

Students on the four first-place teams will each receive a $10,000 savings bond. Second-place finishers will receive $5,000 bonds. Their advisers and schools will receive products from Toshiba, which sponsors the contest.