For the Love of Science: SCHers Win at Local and Regional Science Fairs

What do spotted lanternflies, gut microbiome health, chromotherapy, and anticoagulants have in common? They were all topics of award-winning research by SCHers! More than a dozen SCH students earned recognition at Philadelphia’s 43rd annual George Washington Carver (GWC) Science Fair—taking home first-place medals in 7 of the 13 categories entered—and several went on to earn awards at the regional Delaware Valley Science Fair (DVSF) where they competed against the best students from PA, NJ, and DE. 

Junior Cecelia Stevenson won a first-place medal at GWC for her work on red and blue color light exposure chromotherapy and also earned the PECO Powers the Future Award, which includes a weeklong summer program for STEM leaders. “This project taught me a lot about the science of color and human anxiety, which I had never explored before, but it also taught me a lot about myself,” she said. “I have always loved science but this project opened my eyes to the fact that through science I have the ability to help people. I am beyond grateful for the opportunities this project has afforded me and I am excited to continue to learn and grow as a STEM student this summer and throughout my academic career.”

For their research on western harvester ants, juniors Devin Gibson and Stone (Junyi) Xin won the DVSF Calvert Award recognizing “students showing interest and promise in the study of insects, preferably relating to local species.”   

“We put a lot of work into this science project, spending time after school collecting additional data and even doing work over winter break,” said Gibson. “Regardless of if we had won this award or not, Stone and I are both very invested in science and hope to continue doing research at a college level and beyond.”
 

[Main Image] George Washington Carver (GWC) Science Fair Participants
Bottom row: Hudson Barry, Cecelia Stevenson, Anya Rosenbloom, Will Kollmar
Top row: Gabrielle McHugh, Davin Xin, Aaron Jia, Arjun Goswami, Cameron Lyon, Stone Xin, Declan Lemole
Not pictured: Ava DeCeasare, Devin Gibson, Karina Chan-van der Helm, Allie Stoddard, Brynn Donohue