Top, from left: Seventh-grade students Sarah Paliani, Cara Gerstle, Daniel Filstein and Ruslan Pantaev were winners in the 2002 Cornell Science Challenge's Best Scientific Method category for their presentation, "Cat Grass Cacophony."
The fifth annual Cornell Science Challenge—where seventh-grade students from East Side Middle School in Manhattan present interesting and challenging poster exhibits in a unique science-fair competition—was held in the Medical College's Olin Hall Gym on April 25. This year, the event coincided with "Take Our Daughters to Work Day."
In all, 140 seventh-graders participated in the competition under the mentorship of graduate students from Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences and The Rockefeller University.
From Jan. 21 to April 15, mentors made nine visits to the middle school, located in P.S. 158 (York Avenue and 77th Street). The mentors worked with groups of four or five students, introducing them to the basics of the scientific method: hypothesis, experimentation and analysis. They also met with the seventh-graders after school and arranged visits to laboratories at Weill Cornell and The Rockefeller University. A total of 34 student groups and 38 mentors (19 graduate students, 3 post docs, 2 physicians and 16 research technicians) participated this year. Each group of students chose a research topic and hypothesis, and designed and conducted an experiment to test the hypothesis. Afterward, they collected and analyzed the data.
Awards in various categories were presented by Dr. Joel Pardee, associate dean of the Graduate School, who commented on how impressed he was with the way students collected data and presented their work. Junior judges (winners from last year's competition who are now eighth-graders) helped judge the competition along with graduate students.
Malcolm Davis, a seventh-grader, designed the "2002 Cornell Science Challenge" T-shirts.
2002 Cornell Science Challenge Topics and Winners
Seventh-grade students Elisa Shapiro, Veronica Morgenstern, Melissa Rusli and Mary-Catherine Craig with their exhibit, "Looks Good Enough to Eat," at the science competition held on April 25. Their exhibit won the award for the Most Creative category. (Kenneth Ng, who also helped with this project, is not shown.)
Best Scientific Method: "Cat Grass Cacophony"
Daniel Filstein
Cara Gerstle
Sarah Paliani
Ruslan Pantaev
Most Creative: "Looks Good Enough to Eat"
Mary-Catherine Craig
Veronica Morgenstern
Kenneth Ng
Melissa Rusli
Elisa Shapiro
Best Presentation: "Do Males & Females Act Differently Under Stress?"
M.J. Geier
Stephanie Greenberg
Anabelle Netter
Sharita Sharmin
Best Scientific Method, Runner-Up: "Yawning Investigation"
Jemma Brown
Isabelle Carren-Lesauter
Amanda Jaiman
Haden Minifie
Most Creative, Runner-Up: "Plant Wars: Attack of the Plant Clones"
Corey Blant
Lila Corby
Jared Greenfield
Julian Levin
Best Presentation, Runner-Up: "Welcome to the Caffeine Court"
Eve Ahearn
Malcolm Davis
Liza Eliano
Yurimi Kang
Junior Judge Award: "The Placebo Effect"
Fayanne Betan
Gideon Jacobs
Samantha Margulies
Alex Surakowski
People's Choice Award: "Project Candy C.A.N.E."
Elena Lehrhaupt
Nick Rotondi
Alex Santella
Charlotte Simon
Photos by Amelia Panico.