Junior high school students collaborate with high school mentors to produce variety of research projects
By Matthew Chan | Staff Writer
Horner Junior High School and Irvington High School science students participated in the Irvington Science Fair, hosted by IHS Biotech Club and Science Alliance, on Friday March 7 from 3:30 to 6pm. Students had projects about various fields of science, spanning from physical science to biology.
With a high attendance rate from junior high and high school students alike, the science fair featured projects from many fields of science. One project by Horner seventh grader Shrawak Shakya (mentored by junior Sabrina Mohamed Rafi) was based on growing mung beans. Two individual projects by Brandon Sun (mentored by junior Bryan Sun) and Crystal Hsu (mentored by sophomore Abigail Masbrata) were based on ultraviolet beads. Another by sophomores Sydney Ng and Anjali Kumar focused on using a compound to remove arsenate from water.
At the end of the day, the presenters participated in tie-dying their own commemorative t-shirts. Following that, the awards were presented to the students with the best projects in each category, including a grand prize to Anjali Walia for a project on lead coats on jewelry. Elaine Chan (mentored by seniors Kevin Chen and Amit Patel) won in the physical science category for a project on insulation effectiveness. Desiree Ho (mentored by junior Katherine Wang) won in the biology section with a project on fish filtering water for plants.
“From the beginning, it’s been a journey,” said junior Bisesh Shrestha, treasurer of Science Alliance. “And we helped two very big groups connect and propelled lots of people toward scientific literacy.”
The general consensus of the student officers involved seems to be that the entire project from start to finish has been stressful but rewarding. The members of Science Alliance and Biotech found themselves under severe pressure to produce the fair in very little time.
“It has been very stressful organizing this event,” commented junior Christine Bach, Science Alliance’s publicity manager. “The time crunch has been ridiculous, but in the end, it was worth it to get kids excited and support their classmates in their projects.”
Similarly, Biotech officer Kevin Chen stated, “There’s been a lot of stress associated with this fair, but we’re proud of the mentors and buddies, and it’s been a valuable learning experience.”
When asked about how he thought Biotech and Science Alliance executed the fair, Mr. Chan said, “With difficulty. It’s hard to get other teachers to cooperate and help out, and we were mostly going on the fly. We just kept going, and somehow, we pulled it off.”
According to Mr. Chan, the most valuable lesson for all students that participated in the fair is embodied in the phrase “Learning is hunting.”
