Students Shine in Science

Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Four All Saints School students were honored on Saturday, April 28, at O’Connell High School in Arlington, for their outstanding science fair projects during the annual Diocese of Arlington Science Fair. Two students merited Honorable Mention Awards. Holly S., Grade 7, received an Honorable Mention Award in the category of Behavioral and Social Science for her project, Panoramic Primaries, a study of color and how people perceive it. Matthew P., Grade 8, also received an Honorable Mention in the category of Botany for his experiment, “Water, Water Everywhere, but Not A Drop For Plants, which questioned at what levels of concentrations plants can tolerate salt.

Seventh grader, Mary Kate R. garnered a second place award in the category of Behavioral and Social Science for her work, Remembering Rhythm and Rhyme, investigating whether memorizing material in a rhyming format aids learning more than just in a prose format. In addition, during the awards ceremony Dr. Timothy McNiff presented Mary Kate with a special overall excellence award from Acumen, an international center studying human behavior. Along with a certificate of excellence she also won a $50 cash prize. Eighth grader, Luke W., took first place in the category of Computer Science with his project, Messing With Compression, in which he tested whether people could detect if certain types of computer files had been compressed in size.

All Saints Catholic School salutes the following students who also participated in the Diocesan Science Fair: David F., Alex J., and Meg S., Grade 8, and Nicole G., Cassandra L., and Brittany M., Grade 7.

This year’s Diocesan Science Fair represented the largest competition the Diocese has ever sponsored. Nearly 300 students from across the diocese participated in the event from 30 schools.