MEMS March Highlights

The following highlights are submitted by Irene Policastro, the Secretary to Superintendent John J. Marciante of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District.

Thirty nine students participated at the Jersey Shore Science Fair on Saturday, March 17, 2012, which was larger than ever, with over 700 students! 18 of our 39 students were recognized with awards, with 11 students moving on to the Delaware Valley Science Fair in April. Congratulations to the following winners:

Special award winner - Rahul Singh - winner in the chemistry category, by the American Chemical Society - $25.00

Biochemistry - Third Place - Rachaita Trivedi - What's in this water? Experiments with a homemade turbidity meter?

Botany - First Place - Rachel Weinstein - How does grafting a CHERRY tomato onto the rootstock of a Polbig tomato plant affect the strength of the grafted plant?
Chemistry - First Place - Rahul Singh - How do sugar and salt affect the freezing point of water?

Honorable Mention - Nakita Baviskar - How does the cooling method affect the crystal structure in
maple syrup?

Honorable Mention - Alicia Zhou - The art of perfumery

Computer - Second Place - Adam Purzynski - Can web-based informatics be used to identify over-expressed GENES?

Third Place - Cynthia Rishi - How does the step size and timing interval affect the simulation of the bouncing ball?

Engineering - First Place - Amanda Lashenick - How does the viscous layer, an elastic layer and a visco-elastic layer separately affect how sound is dampened in conjunction with a constraining layer

Second Place - Tyler Stafflinger - Does your cell phone leak?

Honorable Mention - Sarah Krogh - What is the effect of different materials of the skirt of a hovercraft on the distance and speed the hovercraft travels?

Honorable Mention - Brad Escobar - What kinds of materials can you use to create static charge?

Environmental Science - Third Place - Nikita Jagtiani - What is the effect of acid on the shells of a crustacean?

Physics - First Place - Kathryn Jiang - How do different starting temperatures affect the Mpmemba Effect? Second Place - Christopher Demeritt - How does the data track spacing on a CD, DVD, or Bluray disc affect light coming from a laser pointer?

Zoology - Honorable Mention - Amanda LeBright - What types of micro-environments are preferred by pillbugs?

Math - Third Place - Vladyslav Nazarchuk - How does the amount of water in a glass bottle change the pitch At which it sounds when blown over the top?

Medicine - Honorable Mention - Nusayba Ahmed - What is the effect of the different molecular structures of primary and secondary food coloring dyes on the distance gel travels from a gel electrophoresis chamber?

On Saturday, March 24, MEMS students competed in the Southern Regional New Jersey History Day Competition at Rider University. Under the guidance of MEMS National History Day Advisor, Ms. Jacqueline Colon, and Pine Brook National History Day Advisor, Ms. Jill Podel, students created websites, performances and exhibits on topics that related to the 2012 National History Day theme "Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in History."

The following MEMS students will advance onto the State Level for National History Day on May 5 at William Paterson University:

Individual Performance:

• Julia Abahazy- "John Brown's Revolution Through Mary Brown's Eyes"

Individual Website:

• Jared Bass-"Miranda vs. Arizona"

Individual Exhibits:

• Vladyslav Nazarchuk-"The Revolutionary Music of Ludwig van Beethoven"
• Lisa Klauber-"Reactions of Holocaust Survivors"
• Michael Vinciguerra- "Revolution At It's Best:Battle of Monmouth Sparks Hope for the War"
• Arjun Sharma- "Jackie Robinson: Breaking the "Color Line" in Professional Sports"
• Rahul Singh-"The Pinch of Salt that Rocked the British Empire"
• Dariya Yefremenko-"Toussaint L'Ouverture: The African Napoleon"

Group Exhibits:

• Matthew Cruz & Ryan Farrell-"John Peter Zenger"
• Nikita Jagtiani & Cynthia Rishi-"British Invasion: Beatles"
• Connor Clancy & Joseph Perez-"Muckraking- How Investigative Journalism Provoked Outrage and Inspired Reform"
• Alec Grant & Konrad Slabinski- "The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand"