Dist. 15 students advance to State Science Expo

Fourteen junior high students from District 15 have advanced to the Illinois Junior Academy of Science's (IJAS) 2011 State Science Exposition after competing in the IJAS Region 6 Science and Engineering Fair, held March 19 at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights.

In all, 35 students received a total of 53 honors for their work at the Region 6 fair. Those students and their awards and project titles are listed below. Students whose performances in the Region 6 fair qualified them to compete May 6-7 in the IJAS 2011 State Science Exposition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are indicated with an asterisk (*) next to their names.

Carl Sandburg Junior High

• Manthra Venkatakrishnan*—Silver Award—How Does the Brand of Diaper Affect the Amount of Water Absorbed?

• Walt Panfil and Ty Hamilton—Silver Award—The Light is Right: How Does Gender Affect Impulse Control?

• Zoey Krawczyk—Silver Award—How Does the Way You Store Homemade Cupcakes Affect the Freshness of Them?

• Kristen Cardoza—Bronze Award—How Does the Type of Light Affect the Growth of Beans?

Plum Grove Junior High

• Emma Gattuso*—Gold Award—The Effect of Temperature on Glow Sticks

• Eshwar Kishore*—Gold Award—LED vs. CFL vs. ILB

• Jennie Yang*—Gold Award and an invitation to enter the Broadcom MASTERS Competition for ranking in the top 10 percent of projects judged at the fair—Age, Perception, Gorillas

• Prerana Jayanth*—Gold Award and a $150 Optical Society of Chicago Award—The Effect of Sugar on the Index of Refraction

• Sai Ravi*—Gold Award—Does Temperature Affect the Strength of a Magnet?

• Soumyaa Mazumder*—Gold Award, a $50 Best in Category Award, and an invitation to enter the Broadcom MASTERS Competition for ranking in the top 10 percent of projects judged at the fair—The Effect of Sunlight on UV-exposed Yeast

• Ewa Konczewska*—Silver Award—The Effect of Density on Wood Strength

• Chiranth Kishore—Silver Award—Which Environment Rots and Weakens Wood the Most?

• Eric Byrne—Silver Award—The Effect of Increasing Turbine Blade Count

• Prethika Ganesan—Silver Award—Do Plants Use Every Part (Colors) of the Light Spectrum?

• Sheridan Lurie and Courtney Baker—Silver Award—Can Seventh-Grade Girls Taste the Difference Between Fat-Free and Regular Foods?

• Ishan Taparia—Bronze Award—The Effect of Temperature on the Strength of an Electromagnet

Walter R. Sundling Junior High

• Gregor Wettermann*—Gold Award and a $50 Best in Category Award—Crushing Structures with Different Support Designs

• Katie Schuelke*—Gold Award (Silver Award in Paper Session)—Filters for Clean Water

• Than Huynh*—Silver Award—How Does That Sound?

• Ashley Liu—Silver Award—Hot and Cold Batteries

• Omkar Kulkarni*—Bronze Award (Silver Award in paper session)—Which Material is the Best to Make Snow Thermal Wear With?

• Natalie Oplt—Participation Award—Deadly Fertilizer

Winston Campus Junior High

• Jennifer Paul*—Gold Award—What Flavor of Chocolate Melts Best?

• Madeline Mathias*—Gold Award—Can Old Dogs Learn New Tricks?

• Colin Schenkel—Silver Award—Strength of Eggs

• Kelly Gimmler—Silver Award—What's Your Vocal Range?

• Lawson Kosulic—Silver Award—Subconscious Mind

• Nicolas Nelson—Silver Award—The Green Bag Experiment

• Thomas Henry Sobotka—Silver Award—The Electromagnetic Experiment

• Thomas Johnson—Silver Award and a $50 Optical Society of Chicago Award—Lights, Color & Ice

• Emina Mesic—Bronze Award—Lights and Murky Water Lab

• Kayla Ure—Bronze Award—How Does the Strength of Different Materials Affect the Construction of a House?

• Taylor McCall—Bronze Award—Levers

-- Story submitted by Community Consolidated School District 15