Six Staples High School students were recognized for outstanding research at the recent Southern Connecticut Invitational Science and Engineering Fair at Newtown High School.
Participants in the competition gathered for a group photo. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo
There were 250 student projects from 10 school districts across Fairfield County. In total, 36 Staples research students competed in the fair. Those cited were:
Sam Chinitz (sophomore) won third place Environmental Proposal for his project “Optimal Braking Strategies for Energy Recovery in Autonomous Cars.”
Kristen Onorato (junior) won first place Environmental Proposal for her project “Developmental Effects of Grafting Leguminous and Non-Leguminous Plants.”
Dominic Wynter (junior) won second place Physical Proposal for his project “Orbital Stability of Multiple Hot Jupiter Planetary Systems.”
Xiaotian Zhang (sophomore) won first place Physical Proposal for his project “Sunspot Temperature Profiles as a Proxy for Magnetic Field Strength.”
Jeffrey Burns (senior) received honorable mention Completed Environmental for his project “Feeding Behavior of Squilla Empusa in the Long Island Sound.”
Virginia Gerig (freshman) won second place Completed Environmental for her project “Plant Material Effectiveness on Metal Chelators.”
Each student was required to create an exhibit, make a presentation, and participate in a question and answer session.
Volunteer judges evaluated entries (both completed projects and research proposals) in four categories: behavioral sciences, environmental sciences, health sciences and physical sciences.
In addition, there were team projects in each of the categories.
Teams from a group of 248 judges reviewed the student projects.
A unique feature of the competition is students receive both oral and written feedback to aid them in their future work.
