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LVJUSD students win top honors at ACSEF!
Claire Abele and Julia Cable, 8th graders at Junction Avenue K-8 School, were the Middle School Grand Prize Winners and received a fully funded trip to California State Science Fair (CSSF) in Los Angeles on April 15-16, 2013. Claire and Julia developed an engineering project, Saving Raptors One Windmill at a Time, under the guidance of 8th grade science teacher, Donna Lee.
Jessica Bennett, 7th grade student also from Junction Avenue K-8 School, won Best in Category in the Biological Sciences category, and will serve as an alternate to CSSF with her project, Oil Eaters. Jan Bennett, 7th grade science teacher at Junction, served as her advisor.
All three students received a special award from Broadcom Masters. Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) is a program of Society for Science & the Public that inspires and encourages the nation's young scientists, engineers and innovators.
Nineteen students submitted 12 projects in 5 categories and were awarded three first place ribbons (listed above), two 2nd place ribbons, one 3rd place ribbon, and three 4th place ribbons. Rhea Park, 7th grader at CMS, received a special award from the National Association of Food Technologies for her project, Are Organic Foods Not Genetically Modified?
A special recognition goes to the science teachers who supported and guided students in their research: Donna Lee (8th grade at Junction Avenue K-8 School), Jan Bennett (7th grade at Junction Avenue K-8 School), Regina Brinker (7th grade at Christensen Middle School), Courtney Burmann (6th grade at Joe Michell K-8 School). Thank you for your time and dedication.
For the complete list of middle school students and their projects, click here.
At the high school level, Livermore students demonstrated prowess in scientific research and engineering projects. Forty-four students from both Livermore High School and Granada High School submitted 30 projects in ten categories. Eight students received 2nd place awards: Chloe McGlynn (9th grader at LHS), Anjali Vachhani (9th grader at LHS), Leon-Carlos Aquino-Fabian and Bobby Griffin (11th graders at LHS), Kirsten Mork, Sara Novell, and Aurian Saleh (11th graders at GHS), and Juliana Herbeck (11th graders at GHS). Anjali Vachhani also received a Special Award from the American Chemical Society for her research on The Effect of Temperature and Oxygen on Vitamin C Concentration.
Five students won third place awards: Sankalp Sinha (9th grader from LHS), Michelle Soule and Meagan White (12th graders from GHS), Katie Kulp (11th grader from GHS), and Haley Hamza (11th grader from GHS). Both Michelle Soule and Meagan White received a $750 Scholarship from Chevron for their research, Searching for Duckweed Proteins.
The nine 4th place winners include Tristan White (10th grader from LHS), Lucas Pham, Benjamin Newton, and Nadia Hassen (11th graders from LHS), Jacob Rakestraw and Ethan Valdez (9th graders from LHS), Michelle Runyan (12 graders from GHS), and Sarah Guilford (11th grader from GHS). Lucas, Ben and Nadia received a Special 1st Place Award from Zone 7 Water District for their water-related project, Solar Aqueduct. Jacob and Ethan received a Special 3rd Place Award from Zone 7 Water District for their water-related project, Are You Thirsty?
We wish to recognize LHS and GHS science teachers for their support and guidance of their students: Steven Giles (LHS), Mike Waltz (LHS), Susan Johnston (LHS), Frankie Tate (GHS), Elizabeth Lopez (GHS), and David Peterson (GHS). Thank you for your time and dedication.
For the complete list of high school students and their projects, click here.
2013 LVJUSD Science Odyssey: a Science Success Story
On Wednesday, February 27th, about 90 judges from the Livermore labs, local corporations, and Livermore schools convened at Junction Avenue K-8 School to undertake a formidable task: interview 673 students and judge almost 400 projects!
Students, parents, district teachers and staff, and the community reveled in the final results the evening of Thursday, February 28th. Students from Kindergarten to 12th grade were awarded 110-first place ribbons, 180-second place ribbons, 182-third place ribbons, and 201-Honorable Mention ribbons.
In addition to viewing the exceptional research and engineering projects, students and families listened to the rockin’ sounds of Scientific Jam and devoured snacks provided by Abbie 4H and the Junction Avenue K-8 School PTA and Parent Center. Local science-based organizations and companies provided hands-on demonstrations at their exhibits. We are thankful to the following for sharing their time and expertise with our community: City of Livermore Community Development Department, Friends of Springtown Preserve, Friends of the Arroyo, Adopt-a-Creek, LARPD, Livermore Lithophiles, Livermore Sanitation, Livermore Water Resources, New World Systems, Play-Well TEKnologies, Solar Universe, Swaim Biological, TOPScience Planetarium, VacuaTechniques Company, WattzOn, Zone 7 Water Agency.
Students from both high schools provided demonstrations: dissections by the physiology classes, animals from the Future Farmers of America, engineering projects from the LHS Green Engineering Academy and CMS STEM Exploration classes.
At 6:45 PM, the winners of the Logo Design Contest were acknowledged. Avni Vachhani won 1st place at the elementary level, Morgan Rose won 1st place at the middle school level, and Tonette Pham won 1st place for the high school level. The logo designed by Morgan Rose was used for the t-shirts and the one by Tonette Pham graced the cover of the program.
In the Art of Science Photography Contest, students take a photo and write a description of the scientific concept. The elementary 1st place winner was Isobel Baca (3rd grader at Smith); the middle school 1st place winner was Vanessa Hernandez (8th grader at Junction Avenue K-8). Both students received gift certificates donated by Richards Crafts in Livermore.
Best of Show Awards were based on recommendations from the judges and awarded to four outstanding projects. At the Kindergarten to 3rd grade level, Jackson Avenue 2nd grader, Adriana Martz, won for her project, Stay Fresh. The team of Kate Merritt, Abbie Otte, and Sean Taulbee won Best in Show at the 4th to 5th grade level with their research project, Shell vs. Shell. In the 6th to 8th grade group, Justin Allen, 8th grader at Christensen Middle School, won for his engineering project, Solar Panel Efficiency. And in the 9th to 12th grade group, Anjali Vachhani, 9th grader at Livermore High School, was selected Best of Show for her research project, The Effect of Temperature and Oxygen on Vitamin C Concentration.
There is an extensive list of volunteers to whom we owe a debt of gratitude and whose time and energy helped make this event a huge success. First we wish to thank the LVJUSD Science Odyssey Committee for months of planning, organizing and executing a successful science fair for all our students. We also wish to thank the science teachers throughout the district for their time and expertise and for guiding the students through the scientific process. About 90 judges from the district and local labs and companies supported the fair and we are grateful for their time and expertise. We also thank all the community organizations for sharing their expertise as science-based professionals in our community. Many kudos go to the Junction leadership students who helped set up both evenings running numerous errands. Finally, we wish to extend our sincerest appreciation to Junction Avenue K-8 School and community for graciously hosting this event.
What is the Science Odyssey?
The LVUSD Science Odyssey is a science event for the whole family. Students in grades K-12 can register to enter science projects demonstrating their ability to apply the scientific method to topics of their choice. We hope this will be a learning experience for the entire family. However, while families may help in the planning process, the work and experiment must be done by the student.
Our LVJUSD students proudly display their experiments at the 2013 Science Odyssey at Junction Avenue K-8 School on Thursday, February 28, 5-7 PM.
On Wednesday, February 27, judges will determine how well each student research project followed the basic scientific method steps to answer questions on his/her selected topic of interest. Then the judges will interview the students about the experimental process and what the students have learned throughout the process. On Thursday, February 28, there will be fun events for the entire family, including interactive demonstrations by community organizations, a planetarium show, live music, and food for sale by the local 4-H group.
A summary of the steps the students will have to complete is available to help describe what will be required to complete a project. The students can work independently or in small groups of 2 or 3 and are encouraged to use resources at school, the libraries, on the web, and at home to complete their research project. Additional mentors may be available to help the students successfully complete their projects. Please ask your science teacher for more information about mentors.
Some projects may only take a few days to complete while others may take several weeks to complete (i.e., include growing plants or crystals). The level of effort and costs will depend on the topic the student selects. Once the student selects a topic, he/she will need to submit the question for their project for approval by his.her science teacher. This is a great time to talk with the teacher about the project and begin to get an idea of how to complete their project using the scientific method.
There are many web resources to help the students understand what is required to successfully complete a Science Odyssey project, as well as topic wizards to help students pick their topics. One outstanding site is Science Buddies (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/), which provides an age- and interest-based online topic wizard, an online project guide with many examples, and “Ask an Expert” help. Library and school media center staff will be happy to help students access these sites and other resources as the students work to complete their projects.
