WARWICK – Winners in this year’s Amgen Rhode Island Science & Engineering Fair were honored last night in a ceremony at Community College of Rhode Island’s Theater in the Round.
The event is divided into two divisions: Junior, for students in grades 6 through 8, who may enter individually or in teams; and Senior, for students in grades 9 through 12. Students enter via their schools.
In the Senior Division, Best in Fair honors – plus grants of $500 apiece and $500 for each of their schools – went to Christopher Piette of Smithfield, a student at La Salle Academy in Providence, and Gabriel Fine of Scituate High School.
Fine’s entry was a study challenging a mathematical model of brain activity.
Piette’s was a prototype of a weight-activated car seat intended to protect children left in a parked car. The seat alerts parents via cell phone, and passersby via a flashing light, if the vehicle temperature rises above 85 degrees. A built-in fan is activated if the temperature reaches 95.
They will advance to the world’s largest pre-college science competition, the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair, slated for May 11 to 17 in Atlanta.
Grace McKay-Corkum of La Salle Academy was named the Senior Division’s Best in Fair Alternate, while the Governor’s Award went to Andrew Andraka of Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick.
In the Junior Division, Best in Fair honors went to Fiona Paine of Barrington Middle School and Laura Clerx of the St. Margaret School. Paine also took the First Lady’s Award.
The fair itself was this past weekend, also at CCRI’s Knight Campus in Warwick, where the volunteer judges evaluated projects on Saturday and the exhibit opened to the public on Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.
“It was tremendous,” said Edna Mattson, site coordinator for CCRI. The largest fair in several years, it drew entries from 476 students, she said.
“This year, we had 86 more kids than usual, 46 more projects,” RISEF Director Mark Fontaine, a science teacher at Bishop Hendricken and an adjunct professor at CCRI, told Providence Business News. “It was a strong year, really – and quality-wise, it also was a stronger year than usual.”
The biggest challenge each year, Fontaine said, “is marrying the group that runs it” – the Society for Science & The Public, a businesslike organization with strict guidelines – “with adolescent boys and girls, who aren’t so good at following rules.”
This year’s RISEF sponsors, besides Amgen Inc. (Nasdaq: AMGN) and CCRI, included Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN), East Greenwich Formals, Comprehensive Business Systems, Base 8 Group Web site designs, Bishop Hendricken High School and the U.S. Armed Forces.
The Rhode Island Science & Engineering Fair, founded in 1995, is a nonprofit organization that aims to promote science education and investigation by local students. For more information – including entry rules, project ideas and a list of winners – visit risef.org.
Additional information about the Society for Science & The Public – or the 2008 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), slated for May 11 to 17 in Atlanta – is available at www.societyforscience.org .
