It was a good weekend for The Arkansas School of Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts and many of its students at the annual Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair.
ASMSA took the Top School honors at the event held March 29-30 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. ASMSA was followed in order by Little Rock Central High School, Pulaski Academy, Alma High School and Abundant Life Christian Academy. The school trophy is determined by a formula that takes the school’s number of award winners and total number of projects into account.
Aarohi Sonputri of Little Rock won third place in the Best in State Individual Awards. Daniel Nkunga of Sherwood and Melike Senlikci of Fayetteville were named Regeneron International Science and Engineering qualifiers through the state science fair. ISEF is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition. More than 1,600 high school students from around the world are expected to compete for more than $9 million in awards, prizes and scholarships at the event that will be held May 11-17 in Los Angeles.
That means ASMSA be represented by five students at ISEF. Sonputri, Nasya Choy of Conway and Michelle Lin of Little Rock qualified for ISEF at the West Central Regional Science Fair held at ASMSA in February.
ASMSA students were recognized in several individual categories with first-, second-, and third-place awards as well as honorable mentions. Students who earned recognition included:
First Place
The team of Lukas Bowler of Hot Springs and Kolten Shook of North Little Rock, Animal Sciences; the team of Kate Rose of West Helena and Michaela Stevens of Hot Springs, Behavioral and Social Sciences; Marko Hales of Greenbrier, Earth and Planetary Science; Melike Senlikci of Fayetteville, Energy and Transportation; Jimi Frazier of Hot Springs, Mathematical Science; Christine Dunning of Clarksville, Microbiology; and Alice Dong of Arkadelphia, Plant Sciences.
Second Place
Melanie Holmes of Atkins, Animal Sciences; Sasha Thomas of Hot Springs, Engineering: Electrical and Mechanical Engineering; Ivy Hong of North Little Rock, Engineering: Materials and Bioengineering; the team of Finneas Salazar of Searcy and Ezekiel Summers of Paragould, Environmental Management; and Tyler Aiello of Conway, Physics and Astronomy.
Third Place
The team of Evan Fowlkes of Mountain View and Kendra Grant of Bismarck, Animal Sciences; Destiny Tate of Melbourne, Behavioral and Social Sciences; Daniel Nkunga of Sherwood, Computer Science; Ava Whisenhunt of Foreman, Engineering: Electrical and Mechanical Engineering; the team of Daymond Franklin of Lexa and Haven Herring of Benton, Environmental Management; the team of Samantha Pruitt of North Little Rock and Anna Grace Wright of Pottsville, Environmental Science; and Shane Driver of Helena-West Helena, Mathematical Science.
Honorable Mentions
Reagen Smith of Marion, Animal Sciences; Jezabelle Lowry of Conway, Behavioral and Social Sciences; Carmella Lewis of Alma, Cellular and Molecular Biology; Annalise Stanford of Paris, Chemistry; Geoffery Williams of Jacksonville, Engineering: Materials and Bioengineering; Gisselle Ellington of North Little Rock, Medicine and Health; the team of Christian Lu of Jonesboro and Jameil Modica of Blytheville, Microbiology; and Michael Schranz of Longmeadow, Mass., Plant Sciences.
Special Awards
Several special awards were also announced by various organizations. They included:
- Michelle Lin of Little Rock and Dr. Brian Monson, first place, Arkansas American Fisheries Society Award, for projects that promote the Society’s objectives;
- Christine Dunning of Clarksville, Arkansas Environmental Education Association award, for projects that promote environmental literacy in Arkansas;
- Gisselle Ellington of North Little Rock, winner of the Eddie Reed Biomedical Award, an award for a minority student doing excellent biomedical research;
- The team of Christian Lu of Jonesboro and Jameil Modica of Blytheville, runner-up for the Eddie Reed Biomedical Award, an award for a minority doing excellent biomedical research;
- Marko Hales of Greenbrier, the EE Quest Award, sponsored by the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment, for a project that showcases the next generation’s quest for advancements in science related to energy production or protection of the environment, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Award for a project related to ecosystems, climate, weather and transportation;
- Kira Burnett of Mountainburg, the NASA Earth System Science Award, for an outstanding project in Earth System Science;
- Jimi Frazier of Hot Springs, the Naval Science Award from the Office of the Navy for excellent student research;
- Melike Senlikci of Fayetteville, the Naval Science Award from the Office of the Navy for excellent student research;
- Carmella Lewis of Alma, the Pepperman-Albert Memorial Award for an excellent project related to cancer research; and
- Ivy Hong of North Little Rock, U.S. Metric Association award for a project utilizing metric units.