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Their formula: Imagine, create
Yet Shantanu Gaur's exhibit, which outlined his project using graphics and text on a poster board, was not one of them -- at least on the surface.
It is not easy to see things at a molecular level, after all.
Despite its lack of immediate flashiness, Gaur's research on the retinas of chicks won him one of three places at the prestigious Intel International Science Fair, which will be held in May in Portland, Ore.
"Many of these projects are just world-class science," said Chuck Vukotich, chairman of the board for the event, also known as the SciTech Festival, which took place at Heinz Field on the North Shore.
The science projects reflected the work of students from the tri-state area in grades six through 12. Fifty projects received awards during ceremonies yesterday.
"The competition here can be brutal," said Vukotich, assistant deputy director of the Allegheny County Health Department. "There are many extraordinary projects that we just cannot give awards to."
Gaur, 17 -- a senior at Bethel Park High School who is headed for Harvard University in the fall -- presented research he conducted during a summer program last year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studied the interaction of an enzyme and a receptor in the retinas of chicks.
"This work promises to be useful for the treatment of macular degeneration and glaucoma," said Gaur, who hopes to earn both a medical degree and a doctorate in biochemistry.
The other two students selected to compete in the Intel International Science Fair in Portland are Di Ye, a sophomore at Mt. Lebanon High School; and Lekha Tammalapalli, a junior at Fox Chapel Area High School.
Other projects at fair yesterday included a study of the chemistry of sunscreen; a comparison of the effects of ibuprofen and aspirin; and a study of antifreeze.
Peter Gayler, 13, an eighth-grader at Ingomar Middle School, won first place in his category for using a digital microscope attached to his computer to monitor the effect of temperature on the crystallization of snow.
"I found that the temperature does not have an effect on how snow crystallizes," Gayler said.
For four consecutive years, Holly Fritz and Karen DeMarco -- both eighth-grade teachers of general science at Ambridge Area Junior High School -- have produced more winning students than any other school. This year, 11 of the 20 students whom the two Ambridge teachers brought to the fair received awards.
"Some of the kids who do well are the straight-A students, but others are not," DeMarco said. "A project is good as long as the kid doing it is interested in it."
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