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Science Buddies News Updates
Congratulations Go Out to Two Science Buddies Intel Finalists! (February 14, 2008)
Science Buddies Make Semifinals at Intel Science Talent Search (January 23, 2008)
Congratulations Go Out to Two Science Buddies Intel Finalists! (February 14, 2008)
CARMEL, CA (February 14, 2008) - Science Buddies is proud to honor former volunteers Yihe Dong and Eric Nelson Delgado, who were both recently announced as finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search (STS)! The Intel STS is often considered the "junior Nobel Prize" and has a rich history as America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition. Students presented original research to an impressive audience of scientists and government leaders. The next stop for Yihe and Eric is Washington D.C. in March, where they will participate in a week-long event that includes rigorous judging, as well as meetings with national leaders and leading scientists. The top winner will receive a $100,000 scholarship from the Intel Foundation, and each finalist will receive at least $5,000 in scholarships and a new laptop.
Eric currently attends Bayonne High School in Bayonne, New Jersey and his project was inspired by work he performed at an internship two years ago at a local medical center. There, he conducted an epidemiology project focusing on antimicrobial resistance and became very interested. His interest became particularly heightened when he came across a paper that described 5'-methoxyhydnocarpin, a chemical found in certain plant species. This compound has the ability to almost completely reverse the effects of antimicrobial resistance. He was amazed by its effectiveness and recognized its potential impact on the treatment of resistant bacteria, which led to his junior year project.
Eric's junior year project led to his senior year project and Intel STS entry: "Engineering a Novel Gram-negative Effective Efflux Pump Inhibitor." In his project, Eric studied the use of novel efflux pump inhibitors (EPI) to improve the efficacy of antibiotics against multi-drug-resistant bacteria. He tested a compound known to disable a simple efflux pump in S. aureus on a more complex pump in E. coli, nonpathogenic bacteria. He found that a modified form of it, diosmetin, could enter the E. coli cell and effectively disable the more complex pump. Eric's research, while very in-depth, was all done in his high school's lab.
Yihe, a student at Cedar Shoals High School in Athens, Georgia, titled her science fair project "Maternal Effects of Dietary Restriction in Fruit Flies." The inspiration for Yihe's project was a result of her lifelong interest in aging. She often asked herself questions like "Why can't living organisms live forever?" and "How can you prolong life?". These simple questions motivated her to pursue a project about aging.
In a seven-month investigation, Yihe studied 3,200 virgin offspring of regular diet (R) vs. diet-restricted (DR) parents. She discovered that if you apply dietary restrictions to the fly parents, their offspring will be more stress-resistant, but live shorter lives, which she found to be very surprising since organisms that are exposed to diet restrictions are generally more resistant to stress and live longer lives. Yihe believes her findings can further understanding of the evolutionary trade-off between quality and quantity in Drosophila reproduction. Ultimately, Yihe was motivated by the belief that nothing is too big to achieve and that if you just go one step at a time, you will get to where you want to go.
Despite countless hours of hard work on their projects, in addition to academics and extracurricular activities over the past year, Yihe and Eric have offered to share their journey with you. Yihe's chronicle of her regional and state science fair experiences can be found here: http://www.sciencebuddies.com/science-fair-projects/blog_yihe_dong_jshs.shtml. Eric will also be contributing his experiences, so stay tuned!
Science Buddies Make Semifinals at Intel Science Talent Search (January 23, 2008)
CARMEL, CA (January 23, 2008) - We are pleased to announce that four past and present Science Buddies volunteers recently qualified as semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search (STS), held in Washington D.C. The STS is often considered the "junior Nobel Prize" and has a rich history as America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition. Students presented original research to an impressive audience of scientists and government leaders. Congratulations to the following:
| Eric Nelson Delgado | Bayonne High School, Bayonne, New Jersey | Engineering a Novel Gram-negative Effective Efflux Pump Inhibitor |
| Yihe Dong | Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, Georgia | Maternal Effects of Dietary Restriction in Fruit Flies |
| Richard Jay Li | Monte Vista High School, Danville, California | A Novel Approach to Rapid Diagnosis of Cancer by FTIR Spectroscopy Combined with Ligand-Receptor Specific Binding |
| Yingna Liu | Ossining High School, Ossining, New York | An Effective and Environmentally Friendly Method for the Control of the Mosquito Population |
For information about the Intel Science Talent Search please visit www.sciserv.org/Sts/.
Science Buddies to Partner with CYBERCHASE, the Award-Winning Children's Math Television Program Seen on PBS KIDS GO!
CARMEL, CA (January 10, 2008) - Science Buddies today announced that it has entered into a partnership with CYBERCHASE, the Emmy Award-winning math-mystery cartoon produced by Thirteen/WNET New York and seen daily on PBS KIDS GO!. Using CYBERCHASE episodes and educational materials found on the program's companion website, pbskidsgo.org/cyberchase, as inspiration, Science Buddies will author and publish articles for its website that will give students ages 8 to 11 ideas and step-by-step instructions for how to do cool math-related science fair projects.
Each year, millions of students are required to do a science fair project. Students have the most fun and learn more when they are able to choose a topic for their project that they find very interesting and engaging. "Most students experience a great deal of frustration and difficulty in selecting a topic for their science fair projects. They often have more trouble picking a topic than they do designing experiments and analyzing results," said Ken Hess, president and founder of Science Buddies. "That's why Science Buddies developed its popular Topic Selection Wizard tool and our large and growing collection of Project Idea outlines. We aim to provide all students with meaningful Project Idea outlines relevant to their personal interests as well as other useful background materials that will give them the information they need to develop excellent science projects."
Many students who have an interest in mathematics don't realize that math experiments are a possible topic for a science fair project. The Mathematics Interest Area on the Science Buddies website helps students see that there are many wonderful possibilities for math experiments that are suitable for science fairs at the K-12 level. The site currently offers dozens of math project ideas. With funding from the Motorola Foundation and help from CYBERCHASE, Science Buddies plans to develop many more math-related project idea articles in the coming year.
About CYBERCHASE
CYBERCHASE - the only math series for children on American TV - airs daily on PBS KIDS GO! across the country. Check local listings at CYBERCHASE Online: pbskidsgo.org/cyberchase. CYBERCHASE is produced by Thirteen/WNET New York in association with Title Entertainment Inc. Major funding for CYBERCHASE is provided by the National Science Foundation, Ernst & Young LLP, Northrop Grumman Corporation, PBS, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by The Volckhausen Family.
About PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO!
PBS KIDS, for preschoolers, and PBS KIDS GO!, for early elementary school kids, are committed to providing the highest quality non-commercial content and learning environment for children across the country. Providing age-appropriate, diverse programming for kids, PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! programs consistently earn more prestigious awards than any other broadcast or cable network. Only PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! have earned the unanimous endorsement of parents, children, industry leaders, and teachers. With additional PBS resources to complement its programming, including PBS KIDS online (pbskids.org), PBS KIDS GO! online (pbskidsgo.org), PBS Parents (pbsparents.org), PBS Teachers (pbs.org/teachers), PBS Ready To Learn services and literacy events across the country, PBS is providing the tools necessary for positive child development. PBS is a nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 355 public television stations, serving nearly 73 million people each week and reaching 99% of American homes.
About Science Buddies
Science Buddies, a non-profit agency based in Carmel, California, was founded in 2001. It quickly became the premier online source of K-12 science project information. Science Buddies will serve a diverse audience of 6.5 million K-12 students and teachers in 2007. Science Buddies' extensive collection of helpful resources for student investigators includes a large library of Project Ideas in 26 fields of science and engineering. The Presenting Sponsor of Science Buddies is Seagate Technology. Other major corporate sponsors include Bio-Rad Laboratories, Motorola Foundation, Northrop Grumman, and Symantec. For more information on Science Buddies, please visit www.sciencebuddies.org.
Media Contacts
Courtney Corda, Science Buddies
+1-925-736-2696
courtney@sciencebuddies.org
