On March 12, Medford High School students participated in the Annual Region IV Science and Engineering Fair at Somerville High School. This event featured students enrolled in local private, charter and public schools and they presented over 100 different science and/or engineering projects. MHS students did extremely well this year!
Taking home one of the top three prizes was MHS senior Ann Le. Ann Le’s project, “Viability of co-cultured Mycobacterium smegmatis and THP-1 cell-derived macrophages following infections in vitro,” was awarded second place overall and qualified her for both the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair as well as the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which is being held May 8-13 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Ann is a National Honor Society member, a member of the crew team, and plays piano. She is passionate about science, mathematics, engineering and technology and wants to use this knowledge to solve global problems.
The top 43 projects were given a sponsored cash award and those students were invited to participate in the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held at MIT May 6th and 7th. The Medford High School students recognized with an award included:
Joseph Farah – (Grade 11, 14th Prize) “A Study of Spectral Index and Flux Density Variation in Spectral Energy Distributions of High Redshift Radio Galaxies”
Julia Casey – (Grade 12, 21st Prize) “3D Primary Rat Neuron Culture with Media Manipulation”
Michelle Nguyen – (Grade 12, 25th Prize) “The Effect of Varying Fungal Chitin Concentrations on the Tensile Strength of Bio plastics”
John Mucci-Riley and Vanessa Liu – (Grade 12, 40th Prize) “The Effect of Chemical Environments of Local Moons on the Survival of Life”
“This is just another example of the excellence represented by the students here at Medford High School. It is a pleasure to work with them and I know the Mustang community wishes them much luck in the State Science Fair,” said Rocco Cieri, Science Coordinator for the Medford Public Schools K-12.
Region IV Science and Engineering Participants from Medford High School (left to right): Serena Do, Julia Casey, Vanessa Liu, Simona Miller, Ronaldson Bellande, Michelle Nguyen, Joseph Farah (not pictured, Ann Le and John Mucci-Riley)
The Winners’ Circle: Julia Casey, Vanessa Liu, Joseph Farah, Michelle Nguyen, Ann Le (not pictured, John Mucci-Riley)
