More than 275 participants from nearly 40 Wyoming schools competed this week in the
2010 Wyoming State Science Fair on the University of Wyoming campus.
Sean Sylvester from Greybull High School won the "Best in Fair" award at the Wyoming State Science Fair, held March 7-9 on the University of Wyoming campus.
Competing in the senior chemistry category, Sylvester's winning entry was "Effectiveness of Natural Aluminosilicates in the Removal of Heavy Metal Contaminants from Solution."
The overall second place winner was another Greybull student, Anthony Smith, with his project, "Ceramic Glazes: Their Affects on the Physical Properties of Ceramics" in the senior engineering division.
Wyoming State Science Fair awards were presented for first through fourth places in junior (grades 6-8) and senior (grades 9-12) divisions in these categories: behavioral and social sciences, chemistry, engineering, medicine and health, zoology, biochemistry, computers, environmental sciences, microbiology, botany, earth and space sciences, mathematics, physics and teams.
A panel of more than 100 judges from UW and other organizations will evaluate projects based on scientific thought/engineering goals, creative ability, thoroughness, skill and clarity.
Junior Award of Merit awards also were presented to the top six outstanding junior division projects. They were: Lia Eggleston, Snowy Range Academy, Laramie; Devan LaMere, Sonya Legerski and Joe Shenefelt, all from Pinedale Middle School; Tessa McCardell, Poison Spider School, Casper; and Maurice Shih, Laramie Junior High School.
Sylvester and Smith, along with several other Wyoming students, received an all-expenses paid trip to the International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, Calif., this May.
Other qualifiers, listed by category, school and project are:
-- Earth Sciences, Travis Sylvester, "Improving Mine Reclamation Outcomes with Soil
Amendment Variations."
-- Medicine, June Sun, Laramie High School, "The Role of BDNF in the Formation of
Dendritic Spines."
-- Team Project, Lingga Adidharma/Widya Adidharma, Laramie High School, "Decolorization
and Free Fatty Acid Extraction of Waste Cooking Oil by Absorption, Percolation and
Gas Stripping"; and Jessica Hunt/Kyra Cundall, Greybull High School, "Evaluating Pesticide
and Herbicide Contamination of Big Horn River Sediments Using GC/MS."
For a complete list of winners, listed by name, school and project name, cut and paste the link on your Web browser: https://www.uwyo.edu/sciencefairsupport/docs/pressreleasewinners.xlsx.
