2013 Science Fair results in; BW has 32 Superiors

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

The 2013 Big Wal­nut Sci­ence Fair, held last Thurs­day evening at Big Wal­nut High School, is one of the few school dis­trict sci­ence fairs in the state that has been held con­tin­u­ously for the past 50-plus years; and this year’s sci­ence fair, an event that involves stu­dents from fifth grade through high school, show­cased 115 projects, indi­vid­ual and group.

Fifty-four vol­un­teer judges from all over Cen­tral Ohio, rep­re­sent­ing many Ohio insti­tu­tions includ­ing The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity, Ohio Wes­leyan Uni­ver­sity, Bat­telle Insti­tute, PPG and McGraw-Hill to name just a few, judged the projects.

After enjoy­ing a deli­cious Antonio’s Pizza Ital­ian din­ner and Valentine-themed desserts baked and donated by Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School PTO moms, the judg­ing teams spent 90 min­utes on the floor inter­view­ing stu­dent sci­en­tists about their research, what they learned, where their ideas came from, what their con­clu­sions were.

When the results were in, Big Wal­nut stu­dents had 32 eli­gi­ble Supe­rior rated projects that will be invited to pro­ceed onto the next level of com­pe­ti­tion at Cen­tral Dis­trict Sci­ence Day at Colum­bus State Com­mu­nity Col­lege on Sat­ur­day, March 16.

Stu­dents from Big Walnut’s inter­me­di­ate, mid­dle and high schools sub­mit­ted supe­rior rated projects. Supe­ri­ors were earned by: Kar­ley Becker, Faith Myers, Kyle Davis, Eka­te­rina Bram­mer, Joshua John­son, Eli Kirk­endall, Elis­a­beth Ansel, Jenna Hard, Car­o­line Craig-Bowden, Madi­son Alshire, Emily Kued­erle, Asher Zakra­jsek, Nick Span­gen­berg, Mitchell Truax, CJ Rock­well, Cody Car­ius, Jesse Rines, Bai­ley Bod­ker, Jil­lian Salmon, Austin Duck­worth, Ser­ena Small, Alex Brehm, Julia Pal­lone, Brooks McClin­tock, Sophia Holderby, Han­nah Ack­ley, Audrey Rice, Mary Gray, Ethan Tope, Han­nah Pinkston, Kaitlin Meade and Brian Whitesel.

“The impor­tant role these sci­ence fairs play for stu­dents not only includes expe­ri­enc­ing hands-on sci­ence, but also pro­vides an oppor­tu­nity for them to receive awards, cer­tifi­cates, plaques, cash, and even col­lege schol­ar­ships,” said Big Wal­nut High School sci­ence teacher Matt Wallschlaeger. “And stu­dents who do par­tic­i­pate find that the sci­ence fair expe­ri­ence pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties that can improve their edu­ca­tional and occu­pa­tional futures.”

Pro­fes­sion­als inter­ested in judg­ing at the Cen­tral Dis­trict Sci­ence Day may do so by con­tact­ing Big Wal­nut Sci­ence Fair Co-Directors Linda Mar­tin < linda.martin776@gmail.com > or Matt Wallschlaeger < mattwallschlaeger@bigwalnut.k12.oh.us >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Feb 20 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.