Maine State Science Fair showcases high school students’ STEM prowess
By Sarah Laskowski
Press Release
Winners will represent Maine at prestigious International Science Fair; scholarships from The University of Maine, College of the Atlantic, and University of Southern Maine awarded to promising high school scientists.
More than 200 students from 26 Maine schools competed for coveted state titles and approximately $840,000 in scholarships on Saturday, March 25 at the 71st annual Maine State Science Fair.
The event, which was organized by The Jackson Laboratory and the Reach Center of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, and held at Colby College, enabled Maine high school students to demonstrate their original science research and engineering projects.
“We see so much talent year-after-year at this inspiring event that showcases Maine students’ accomplishments, and we’re honored to continue supporting the Maine State Science Fair,” said Tom Litwin, Vice President for Education at The Jackson Laboratory. “As a biomedical research institution, we’re particularly excited that all this talent is at our doorstep. We hope these bright young students feel encouraged to continue following their dreams through science and engineering and apply their talents within the State of Maine.”
First-place winner SeungHeon Song and third-place finisher Lily Waddell at the Maine State Science Fair, March 25, 2017 at Colby College.Taking top honors this year:
1st Grand Award SeungHeon Song, Gould Academy Smart road signs
2nd Grand Award Sydney McDonald, Bangor High School The future of prosthesis: The design & analysis of artificial muscle comprised of ionic-polymer metal composites
3rd Grand Award Lily Waddell, Bangor High School Developing an alternative treatment for luminal B breast cancer by targeting DNA repair mechanisms
These winners will represent the state at the prestigious Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles.
"The Maine State Science Fair showcases the talents of Maine's most promising young minds," says Jeffrey E. Hecker, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Maine. "As Maine's public research university, the University of Maine partners to make such important engagement events possible, advocating for science, scholarship and creative achievement, and encouraging the researchers of tomorrow."
In addition, several full-tuition scholarships, totaling up to $840,000 from The University of Maine, College of the Atlantic, and the University of Southern Maine, were distributed to students demonstrating creativity, innovation, aptitude and great scientific potential.
The following students are invited to join the University of Maine Top Scholar program. The program includes a full-tuition scholarship renewable for four years, admission to the UMaine Honors College, match with a UMaine faculty mentor, and a research supply stipend:
Mei Tian, Bangor High School
David Rubin, Bangor High School
Ashley Reynolds, Dexter Regional High School
Kashmir Owen, Islesboro High School
Maggie Nolan, Greely High School
Chelsea Hoyt, Robert W. Traip Academy
Elise Daub, Bangor High School
Jacob Cote, Brewer High School
Spencer Campbell, Bangor High School
Haley Macdougal, Watershed School
Samuel Bonnevie, Greely High School
Emma Bragdon, John Bapst Memorial High School
The following students received a $25,000 scholarship to College of the Atlantic, renewable for up to four years:
Kashmir Owen, Islesboro High School
Gina Vo, Bangor High School
The following students received a $4,000 Presidential Scholarship to the University of Southern Maine, renewable for up to four years:
Gina Vo, Bangor High School
Delana Bennet, Westbrook High School
Usira Ali, Portland High School
Jacob Freudenberger, Nokomis Regional High School
Isaac Sewell, Bangor High School
Jacob Cote, Brewer High School
Hannah Farar, Dexter Regional High School
Emily Elwell, Nokomis Regional High School
Haley Macdougal, Watershed School
Moonhwe Jang, Gould Academy
Corrigan Farnham, Greely High School
Alexander Moreira, Old Town High School
“We are so excited to award these scholarships today,” said College of the Atlantic President Darron Collins. “I’m confident that our students will develop exceptional scientific ability and also, as human ecologists, understand the value of putting science in context. As important as science, technology, math, and engineering are, it's also important that the people going into those fields have an interdisciplinary foundation to their approaches, and that is what we are striving to create at College of the Atlantic.”
Additional category winners from the Maine State Science Fair include:
American Meteorological Society
Alexander Moreira, Old Town High School, Heron Project
Cam Doughty and Hannah Dunn, Bangor High School, The process of monitoring temperatures in the beehive
American Psychological Association
Noah Robinson, Bangor High School, Testing cognitive bias in relation to the Big-5 personality type model, age, and gender
Meghan Dye, Falmouth High School, Having your cake and eating it too: Maximizing the impact and accuracy of graphical visuals
ASM Materials Education Association
Marina Mohawass, Bangor High School, The construction of biodegradable, disposable diapers from cellulose nanofibers
Emma Payne, Bangor High School, Porous filtration membranes made from cellulose nanofibers
Association for Women Geoscientists
Sarah Marcotte, Bangor High School, Exploration of relationships between metal deposition and vegetation composition in a Floridian sediment core
Lauren Wallace, Bangor High School, Chandler River pollution study
GENIUS Olympiad
Elyse Daub, Bangor High School, New England's most valuable resource: Is increasing white pine (Pinus strobus) damage associated with a single fungal species or a community of fungi?
Dwight Knightly, Bangor High School, Snowfall quality as a measurement of particulate matter
Kaitlyn Dunham, Old Town High School, Do Polydora websteri prefer a certain temperature?
Institute of Food Technologists
Ibrahim Saleh, Greely High School, The effect of glycine max heat exposure on the quantification of GMO events
Intel Excellence in Computer Science
SeungHeon Song, Gould Academy, Smart road signs
Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics Award
Jack Prior, Bangor High School, Applying O-Ring theory to the NBA and MLB
NASA Earth System Science Award
Nick Baron, Old Town High School, Investigating habitat for a great blue heron in Penobscot County, Maine
NOAA: Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award
David Rubin, Bangor High School, Modeling forest composition and water quality changes in Maine due to climate change
Kashmir Owen, Islesboro Central School, The impacts of ocean acidification on marine calcifiers
Ricoh Sustainable Development Award
Anthony Caccese, Jesse Karnes, and David Brown, Bangor High School, Designing a desk base containment system to improve the efficacy of a CPU heat-sink cooling system
Gina Vo, Bangor High School, Can a cost-effective aquaponics system be produced using kale and convict cichlids?
Society for Science and the Public Award for Community Innovation
Spencer Krebs, Aiden McDonough, and Colby Grimble, Bangor High School, The effects of compost produced by mealworms through the consumption of polystyrene
Stockhom Junior Water Prize
Mei Tian, Bangor High School, Testing the effectiveness of mycorrhizae in the remediation of phosphorus from stormwater
The Jackson Laboratory Future Innovator Award
Mack D'Angelo, Robert W. Traip Academy, Does learning style impact how you perform on optical illusion tests?
John Wahling, Falmouth High School, Headfirst
John Connors and Jordyn Miller, Bangor High School, Studying the reactivation of biosand filters using microbiological testing
Reach Center Award, Maine Mathematical and Science Alliance
Usira Ali, Portland High School, Nanoparticles: the effects of shell size on optical memory
Emma Hargreaves, Old Town High School, Reproductive cycles in Polydora websteri
Ezra Smith, Lincoln Academy, A prototype of bone conducting headphones
Alexis Allard, Nokomis Regional High School, S.C.O.B.Y sugar trials
Nursultan Rosen, Brunswick High School, What are the best conditions for preventing bread mold?
U.S. Air Force
Alexander Inman, Bangor High School, Behavioral analysis of a 6 meter HIAD structure and components
Maggie Nolan, Greely High School, Development of rapid detection procedures for gamma-hydroxybutyrate derivative gamma-butyrolactone in varying liquid matrices
Minjeong Kim, Gould Academy, Investigating the toxicity and mutagenicity of PHMG
U.S. Metric Association
William Lehan and Alex Saros, Bangor High School, Acoustic analysis of various instruments, distortions, and tuning forks
Yale Science and Engineering Association
Ban Shoukeir, Bangor High School, Extracting four major phenolic compounds from chaga mushroom
Category Awards
Animal Sciences
1st Award – Amara Ifeji, Bangor High School, Biodegradation and mineralization of polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) by plastic-eating worms Tenebrio molitor and Zophobas morio
2nd Award - Chelsea Hoyt, Robert W Traip Academy, Biomechanics of jumping in equines: How jump height affects potential energy stored in the suspension apparatus
3rd Award - Kaitlyn Dunham, Old Town High School, Do Polydora websteri prefer a certain temperature?
Behavioral and Social Sciences
1st Award - Meghan Dye, Falmouth High School, Having your cake and eating it too: Maximizing the impact and accuracy of graphical visuals
2nd Award - Hannah Farrar, Dexter Regional High School, Training for peace
3rd Award - Megan Peach, Dexter Regional High School, The psychology of emojis
Behavioral and Social Sciences: Cognitive Psychology
1st Award – Noah Robinson, Bangor High School, Testing cognitive bias in relation to the Big-5 personality type model, age, and gender
2nd Award – Meghan Cantlin and Alison Noyes, Falmouth High School, Personality!
3rd Award – Amelia Ring, Falmouth High School, Peppermint's impact on test taking speed
Biological Sciences and Engineering
1st Award – Sydney McDonald, Bangor High School, The future of prosthesis: The design & analysis of artificial muscle comprised of ionic-polymer metal composites
2nd Award – Jacob Cote, Brewer High School, Sequence analysis of rRNA and natural ribozymes
3rd Award - Robert Denegre, Taki Ishimura, and Nicholas Reznik, Mount Desert Island High School, Elucidating the underlying genetic pathways of beta-cell proliferation through quantitative trait locus analysis to shed new light in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes
Biomedical and Health Sciences
1st Award – Lily Waddell, Bangor High School, Developing an alternative treatment for luminal B breast cancer by targeting DNA repair mechanisms
2nd Award – Jacob Freudenberger, Nokomis Regional High School, The long term effects of a concussion
3rd Award – Christopher Allen, Eleanor Bridgers, and Nick Stanley, Mount Desert Island High School, Connecting circadian rhythm to type II diabetes using quantitative trait analysis
Chemistry and Materials
1st Award - Maggie Nolan, Greely High School, Development of rapid detection procedures for gamma-hydroxybutyrate derivative gamma-butyrolactone in varying liquid matrices
2nd Award - Marina Mohawass, Bangor High School, The construction of biodegradable, disposable diapers from cellulose nanofibers
3rd Award – Emma Payne, Bangor High School, Porous filtration membranes made from cellulose nanofibers
Computer Sciences
1st Award – SeungHeon Song, Gould Academy, Smart road signs
2nd Award – Spencer Campbell, Bangor High School, The creation of a masking program and a 3D triangulation program to assist in the optimization of a HIAD
3rd Award – David Brown, Anthony Caccese, and Jesse Karnes, Bangor High School, Designing a desk base containment system to improve the efficacy of a CPU heat-sink cooling system
Earth and Environmental Sciences: Energy, Climate, Weather
1st Award - Tyler Delargy, Bangor High School, A solution to the heat efficiency and environmental side-effects of oil boilers
2nd Award - David Rubin, Bangor High School, Modeling forest composition and water quality changes in Maine due to climate change
3rd Award - Dwight Knightly, Bangor High School, Snowfall quality as a measurement of particulate matter
Earth and Environmental Sciences: Water
1st Award - Mei Tian, Bangor High School, Testing the effectiveness of mycorrhizae in the remediation of phosphorus from stormwater
2nd Award – Naomi Moynihan, Bangor High School, How does road salt affect the Kenduskeag Stream?
3rd Award - Omar Alsamsam and Hassan Qureshi, Bangor High School, Storm water management research
Microbiology
1st Award – Corrigan Farnham, Greely High School, Modeling ultraviolet germicidal irradiation through Vibrio fischeri quorum sensing communication
2nd Award – Cecelia Ford, Nick Luce, and Lauren Richardson, Brewer High School, Does sound affect bacterial growth?
3rd Award – Alexis Allard, Nokomis Regional High School, S.C.O.B.Y sugar trials
Physics and Astronomy
1st Award – Samuel Bonnevie and Patrick Lyden, Greely High School, The effect of shoe sole tread design on the coefficient of friction
2nd Award – Ezra Smith, Lincoln Academy, A prototype of bone conducting headphones
3rd Award – Moonhwe Jang, Gould Academy, Considering the future of rocket nozzles
Plant Sciences
1st Award - Elyse Daub, Bangor High School, New England's most valuable resource: Is increasing white pine (Pinus strobus) damage associated with a single fungal species or a community of fungi?
2nd Award - Hallie Macdougal, Watershed School, Oxygen production of phytoplankton
3rd Award - Ibrahim Saleh, Greely High School, The effect of glycine max heat exposure on the quantification of GMO events
The Jackson Laboratory offers educational programs for scientists throughout their careers — from STEM education for high school students and training for science and math teachers to courses and conferences for experienced researchers defining the cutting edge of genomics research and specialized training for physicians interested in incorporating genetics and genomics into their practices.
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