Local Students Named as Semifinalists in National Competition

The Metro Richmond Science Fair (MRSF) is proud to announce that seven winners from the 2011 fair have been selected as semifinalists in the Broadcom MASTERS Competition, a national science competition for middle school students. The seven students, representing three different counties in the metro Richmond area, were selected as First or Second Place winners in the 2011 MRSF, which was held in March.

The Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) is a national STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) competition for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. It is sponsored by the Broadcom Foundation and administered by the Society for Science & the Public (SSP), which is the same organization that administers the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair. In order to be nominated for the Program, a student must be a winner at a science fair that is affiliated with SSP.

Thirty middle school students were nominated to the Broadcom MASTERS at this year's Metro Richmond Science Fair, which is hosted by the MathScience Innovation Center and has been affiliated with SSP since 2002. The students, once nominated, must complete an extensive online application to be considered for the competition. The 1,476 nationwide applications were reviewed by a panel of scientists and engineers who selected the top 300 as national semifinalists.

The top thirty students will be selected from among the semifinalists at the end of August. These students will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC in October to compete for a top prize of $25,000.

The students and the schools they represent are:

Hanover County   

Janak Jaini, Stonewall Jackson Middle School

The Effect of Salt Water Concentration on Laser Diffraction

Henrico County

 Anant Kharkar , Moody Middle School

The Effect of Monosodium Glutamate on the Growth of THP-1

Human Monocytes

 

Anthony Lin , Moody Middle School

The Effect of Different Styles of Swimming on Lung Function

 

Rohan Mathew , Moody Middle School

The Effect of House Plants on Indoor CO2 Levels

 

Swapnil Pande , Moody Middle School

The Effect of Different Filler Materials on the Efficiency of a

Solar Water Heater

 

Fizzah Shaikh , Moody Middle School

The Effect of Particulate Matter on the Ability of Snomax to Freeze Water

Powhatan County

Karina Kunka , Powhatan Junior High School

The Effect of Biodiesel on the Gelling Point of a Diesel Mixture