It was an eventful weekend for the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts at the Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on March 29-30.
ASMSA won its seventh straight school title with 28 of the 35 projects entered by its students earning recognition in their individual categories. Senior Mary Jia of Stuttgart won the George Scheffer Best in State Award for the best overall project. The team of seniors Alex Mooney of Helena-West Helena and Isabel Vasquez of North Little Rock qualified to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair by placing fifth ISEF Finalists category.
Mooney and Vasquez’s project focused on creating a wearable sensory device that will help vision-impaired people move around more freely. They join three other ASMSA students who will attend ISEF on May 12-17 in Phoenix, Ariz. Jia, Rachel Stall of Clarksville and Callen Gast of Cabot qualified for the international fair at the West Central Regional Science Fair held at ASMSA in February.
Jia’s project studying the differences between how three genomes of rice reacted to blast disease was chosen the best project out of 200-plus projects, said Dr. Brian Monson, a physics instructor at ASMSA and director of the West Central Regional Science Fair. Her placement only reinforced the strength of her project, which also won first place overall at the West Central Regional Science Fair and earned Jia recognition in the Siemens Competition, the nation’s premier competition in math, science and technology for high school students, earlier this year.
Monson said that ASMSA also swept the top three awards in several categories at the state science fair.
“These stats show the strength of ASMSA’s research program and STEM curriculum as well as the high-level performance of our students,” Monson said.
Individuals who were recognized for category awards at the state fair were:
- First Place: Team of Alex Mooney and Isabel Vasquez, Engineering: Electrical and Mechanical; Virginia Halterman of Lincoln, Animal Science; Ethan Talley of Conway, Environmental Management; Sarah Balenko of Dover, Mathematics; and Emily Sooksarem of Stuttgart, Plant Sciences.
- Second Place: Ly Hoang of Jonesboro, Celluar and Molecular Biology; Toby Ebarb of Sherwood, Computer Science; Luke Nester of Hot Springs, Earth and Planetary Science; Worthy Fleming of Little Rock, Engineering: Electrical; team of Alexx Weaver of Lonoke and Sophia McClain of Van Buren, Medicine and Health; team of Blaine Martin of Texarkana and Solomon Ni of Jonesboro, Physics and Astronomy; and Brandon Norman of Jacksonville.
- Third place: Saoirse Disney-Mckeethen of Fayetteville, Animal Science, Landan Stuard of Dierks, Cellular and Molecular Biology; Howard Orlina of Little Rock, Earth and Planetary Science; William Rigsby of Crows, Engineering: Electrical and Mechanical; team of Luke Stouffer of Fort Smith and Kenny Ventress of Benton, Engineering: Materials and Bioengineering; and Kendele Kramer of Batesville, Plant Sciences.
- Honorable Mention: Madelynn Hickey of Hot Springs, Animal Sciences; Jon Rowe of Hot Springs, Behavioral and Social Science; Haven Whitney of Searcy, Computer Science; team of Minnie Lee of Charleston and Emily Smith of Cabot, Microbiology; Blake Jefferson of Benton, Physics and Astronomy; and Micah Vess of Dover, Physics and Astronomy.
Several students were also recognized with special awards. They included:
- American Meterological Association: Virginia Halterman of Lincoln
- Arkansas Fisheries: Rachel Stall of Clarksville
- ASM Materials Education Foundation: Team of Alex Mooney of Helena-West Helena and Isabel Vasquez of North Little Rock
- Acxiom Award: Haven Whitney of Searcy; Toby Ebarb of Sherwood (honorable mention)
- Association for Women Geoscientists: Rachel Stall of Clarksville
- Conway Ecofest Award: Saoirse Disney-McKeethen of Fayetteville
- Computer Science Teachers Association Award: Toby Ebarb of Sherwood
- Edmond E. Griffin Award: MaryJ Jia of Stuttgart
- Mark Welch Excellence in Animal Science Research Award: Virginia Halterman of Lincoln
- Mu Alpha Theta: Sarah Balenko of Dover
- NASA EARTH System Science Award: Luke Nester of Hot Springs
- Ricoh Americas Corporation Project in Environmental Sustainability: William Rigsby of Crows
- Stockholm Junior Water Prize: Callen Gast of Cabot
- U.S. Air Force: Sarah Balenko of Dover and Worthy Fleming of Little Rock