Eleven Delaware Valley students win science honors

WESTFALL - Eleven of twenty two Delaware Valley High School students who attended the March 10 Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Regional Competition at Kings College won first place honors and will advance to state competition. Students made ten-minute presentations that explained their long-term projects and results. Their subjects and placements were: • Sarah Gilmour, 9th grade, 1st place, titled “Effect of Different Light Spectrums on Plants.”; • Valerie Langberg, 9th grade, 2nd place, titled “Does Season Effect the Daily Temperature Delta?”; • Caitlin Anderson, 9th grade, 1st place, Perfect Score 5.0, excellence award in earth and space science for junior high, titled “Elevation’s Effect on Temperature and Precipitation.”; • Shawn Chen, 10th grade, 1st place, titled “Using Solubility to Determine Enthalpy and Entropy.”; • Richard Cheng, 10th grade, 3rd place, titled “Chaos Theory.”; • Greg DeGiorgis, 10th grade, 2nd place, titled “Growth of Escherichia Coli on Different Cutting Boards.”; • Elizabeth Mincer, 10th grade, 2nd place, titled “How Temperature Effects E. coli”; • Justin Hubbard, 10th grade, 2nd place, titled “Does The Type of Fertilizer Effect Plant Growth.”; • Rachel Knuth, 10th grade, 2nd place, titled “Seasonal Effects on Pollen Concentrations.”; • Ashley Stryker, 10th grade, 1st place, titled “Do Ashes Effect the Growth of Raphanos sativus.”; • Margarita Polyak, 11th grade, 1st place, titled “Probability of Survival.”; • Lindsey Anderson, 11th grade, 2nd place, “Distance to the Stars.”; • Samantha Mascia, 11th grade, 1st place, titled “The Accuracy of Ultrasound”, 2nd place, titled “Analyzing the Reliability of Ultrasound.”; • Anthony Testino, 11th grade, 1st place, Perfect Score 5.0, titled “The Art Gallery Problem.”; • Megan Welker, 12th grade, 1st place, Perfect Score 5.0, titled “Genetic Mapping of Fruit Flies Accurately by Base Pair.”, 2nd place, titled “How Much E. coli Will Different Household Surfaces Harbor?”; • Shannon Haberzettl, 12th grade, 1st place, titled “Dominating Factors that Influence Handwriting Characteristics.”; • George Hupfer, 12th grade, 2nd place, titled “Analysis of The Heat Capturing Efficiency of Solar Furnaces.”; • Ryan Huttman, 12th grade, 1st place, titled “How is the Catalytic Converter Helping the Environment.”; • Nicholas Troiano, 12th grade, perseverance award for three years of participation and 2nd place, titled “The Viability of a Hydroelectric Generator.”; • Skyler Schneider, 12th grade, perseverance award for three years of participation and 2nd place, titled “Examining Partial Coalescence on Flat Ethanol/Water Surfaces.”; • Roy Neil LaGreca Jr., 12th grade, $2000 scholarship to Penn State Worthington and 2nd place, titled “To Use BST or Not Use BST That is the Question.”; and • Georgiy Polyak, 12th grade, perseverance award for three years of participation and 1st place, excellence award in earth and space science for senior high, titled “Countering the Effects of Acid Rain.” The eleven students who received a first place will advance to state competition May 20 to 22 at the Penn State main campus are: Ashley Stryker in Ecology; Margarita Polyak and Anthony Testino in Mathematics; Samantha Mascia, Ryan Huttman, and Megan Welker in Biology; Shawn Chen in Chemistry; Caitlin Anderson, Sarah Gilmour, and Georgiy Polyak in Earth/Space Science, Shannon Haberzettl in Behavioral/Psychology.