Three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students received international recognition at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
ASMSA students won three Grand Awards and one Special Award at the competition, which was held in Phoenix, Ariz., on May 8-13. ISEF is the world’s largest pre-college science competition. The competition is sponsored by the Society for Science and the Public.
The three ASMSA students were the only Arkansas students to receive recognition at the international competition. More than 1,750 high school students from 77 countries, regions and territories competed in the competition.
Mandolin Harris, a senior from Benton won a second-place Grand Award in Earth and Environmental Science, placing her in the top six competitors in her category. She also received a first-place Special Award from the American Geosciences Institute for her research on water quality of karst outflows in the Ozark Mountains.
Mikayla Hammers, a senior from Little Rock, won a third-place Grand Award in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Her project focused on trichotillomania, a psychological condition that causes people to compulsively pull out their hair.
Taryn Imamura, a senior from Conway, won a fourth-place Grand Award in the Energy: Chemical category. Imamura studied how to create biodiesel from rice hulls, an often overlooked and unused byproduct of a popular Arkansas crop. Imamura had previously won first place overall in the Best State Science and Engineering Fair Individual category at the Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair in April.
Harris qualified for the international competition by winning fifth place in the best individual project by students at the state science fair. Hammers and Imamura qualified for the competition at the West Central Regional Science Fair at ASMSA in February. Imamura won first place overall and Hammers won third. Two other ASMSA students also qualified for ISEF — Samia Ismail of Fort Smith for her second place overall finish at the West Central Regional Science Fair and Andrew Hemund of Jonesboro for his fourth place finish in the State Science Fair Individual category.
This was the most successful ISEF competition ASMSA has had in the last 16 years, said Dr. Brian Monson, Science Department chair and director of the West Central Regional Science Fair. It is the only time since then that ASMSA has brought home more than one prize, he said. An ASMSA student has received a prize in seven of the last eight ISEF competitions, he said.
Monson said the recognition the students received was indicative of the effectiveness of ASMSA’s curriculum.
“The number of projects we qualify and the number of awards we bring home has been steadily climbing. An ASMSA student has brought home an award from seven of the last eight ISEFs. Our research-focused curriculum must be doing an excellent job preparing students for STEM research,” he said.
Each of the award winners credited their success to the support they received from their advisers, teachers, family and friends. They also pointed out that they chose topics to which they had longstanding connections.
Harris’ project focused on spring systems in the Ozark Mountains, many of which residents use as their chief water source. She did 17 case studies on 15 springs throughout the region. Many of them had unusually high amounts of contaminants, which meant her study was not only important for her project but for the individuals who use the springs as well.
“This is not a project that I was interested in just for science fair. I wanted to be able to turn around with my paper and give it back to those locals and tell them whether or not they are safe. Unfortunately, I found out they really aren’t. The capacity of these hydrologic systems to filter out contaminants is actually completely overblown,” she said.
Dr. Lindsey Waddell, a geology and chemistry instructor at ASMSA and Harris’ adviser, said Harris’ interest in geology helped her shine during her time with the ISEF competition’s judges.
“As a career, geology is a relatively small field, and the subject is not taught at most high schools. So when she met judges at ISEF who were geologists, I think that she was just so genuinely excited to be speaking to another geologist that she came across more like she was at a professional meeting presenting to colleagues than a high school student being judged by professionals. One of her judges told me that she had one of the ‘most geological’ of the projects in the Earth and Environmental Science category,” Waddell said.
Hammers said she knows someone who suffers from the psychological condition she studied. The condition has no known causes or cures. She did test studies comparing DNA samples of people who had experienced the condition against those who hadn’t.
She enjoyed her experience at ISEF. Hammers said the experience levels of the judges gave her the opportunity to start speaking immediately about the details of her project without having to start with the minor details.
“It was really nice that you could tell them about your project and they would be like, ‘Oh, well then did you consider doing this or maybe you could do this.’ Because they had specific knowledge on what I was doing, they were able to make suggestions or ask very specific questions. We were able to have nice conversations about it rather than asking fairly generic questions about it. They wanted me to tell them more, and I was like ‘I can do that,’” she said.
Dr. Patrycja Krakowiak, Hammers’ adviser and a biology instructor at ASMSA, credited Hammers’ dedication to her project for her overall success.
“Her unwavering perseverance, distinctive brilliance and scientific curiosity are truly remarkable and represent what is best about ASMSA students,” Krakowiak said. “Instead of giving up, she asked the right questions and always figured out what to do next, just like the best scientists do. What is also very remarkable about Mikayla is how even at such a young age she is able to communicate so clearly and confidently her scientific passion and knowledge.”
Imamura has worked on a version of her project for at least three years. Previously she studied how to produce a surfactant — a compound that lowers surface tension between liquids or a liquid and a solid — from rice hulls. She expanded her research to producing biodiesel from the hulls while also still producing a surfactant as a co-product in the process.
Winning an award at the international competition was a dream she had since she was a 14-year-old standing in the family kitchen watching the 2012 ISEF awards ceremony on television. It was the first time she had heard about the science fair, and hearing about the overall winning project — a cheaper and more effective way to diagnose cancer — made her determined to some day compete and hopefully win an award at it.
Despite winning first place overall at this year’s West Central Regional Science Fair and first place overall in the Best State Science and Engineering Fair Individual category at this year’s state science fair, she still harbored doubts about her project when compared to other projects at the international competition.
“I know my project and love my project. I know the worth of it. But also looking around — not only in my category — everyone’s project, everyone’s science and what they did was incredible,” she said. “I earned my spot to be there, but it’s overwhelming to be surrounded by so many educated people and so many other young people who are just as passionate about doing this as I am who did incredible things. I had to remind myself sometimes, ‘Yep, my project is amazing, too. It’s great.’”
Once she heard her name called to come to the stage to accept the award, she had the reaction many of us would likely have.
“I couldn’t stop smiling. I looked up at the screen and saw myself walking up there because they have a camera that zooms in on people walking to the stage. Looking out at the crowd of all the people I was crying a little bit standing up there,” she said.
Monson, the Science Department chair, served as Imamura’s adviser. He said she made the job easy for him.
“She worked with me for two years on her project even though research is only required of seniors,” he said. “She was always on task, and I did not have to push her at all. My role was basically just guiding her through the process and making sure she had the right supplies. She will be a great STEM researcher.”