Two High School Seniors Named Semifinalists In Intel Science Talent Search

For the average high school student, putting together a science project means testing soil from different backyards, making a tornado inside two soda bottles or pouring baking soda into a miniature volcano. Two students had slightly more complicated projects in mind -- the title of one of them is 21 words long -- and are now semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search 2011.

Arpon Raksit and Marni Wasserman, both seniors, were among the 300 students selected nationwide from a pool of more than 1,700 entries.

"I'm really proud of them, they're really good kids," said Richard Kurtz, a science teacher at the high school who is involved in the science research program. "I've known them for four years since I came to Commack, so I've seen them really grow as scientists."

The annual Talent Search has been seeking out the brightest high school seniors across the country since 1942. For being proclaimed semifinalists, both students receive $1,000 and have $1,000 donated to Commack High School.

Raksit's project, titled "Modeling Heat Transport In Multiphase Materials," involved studying the effects of heat on different materials and creating flame-resistant plastics. The entire study was done through a computer simulation that carried out virtual experiments and compiled data.

The project's inception began two years ago, Kurtz said, when Raksit began work on a similar project at Stony Brook University's Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces. After spending 11th grade learning the ins and outs of programming and computer modeling, he spent the following summer and his final year at Commack High School working on his semifinalist project.

The project also propelled Arpon to become a semifinalist in another science competition, the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.

Wasserman's experiment, "The Development Of A System To Analyze And Compare Colonial Era Weather Data To More Modern Data To Investigate Climate Change," a mouthful, for sure, is described by Kurtz as a "very cool project," used historical climate data to study climate change over 300 years.

"It's like someone standing there with a thermometer in 1700, then coming back in the 1800s, then coming back in the 2000s," is how Kurtz summed it up.

The project began with Wasserman's interest in mathematics and actuary sciences. After putting in a call to the Casualty Actuarial Society, Kurtz was put in touch with John Buchanan, a climate change specialist who works with students. Buchanan proposed Wasserman get involved with a project that was underway, and she happily obliged.

And with her project Wasserman, too, caught the eye of other organizations. In November of last year, she traveled to a NOAA conference (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) in Baltimore to present her findings.

With the semifinalist notch under their belts, Raksit and Wasserman now wait until Jan. 26, when the Talent Search announces the 40 finalists, who are invited to a judging in Washington, D.C. this March to compete for the top prize.