SPA student-scientists win multiple awards at "virtual" science competitions, including two Regeneron ISEF awards

Over Spring Break, ten Upper School Advanced Science Research (ASR) students competed in two science competitions: the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair and the North Central Regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. In response to the current COVID-19 crisis, both competitions were held virtually.

The ASR course is SPA's most advanced course for students-scientists. Students in the course design and implement an original research project, and a requirement of the course is the submission of the student's research to the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair, which was held in February of this year. At that competition, ten ASR students qualified for the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair (MSSEF), which was held virtually in March. For MSSEF, students submitted narrated screencasts of a digital poster created to showcase their research project and results. 

On April 1, an awards ceremony was hosted online by the Minnesota Academy of Science to honor this year's MSSEF participants. The most prestigious award of the evening was the Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) Award. SPA juniors Anthony Chen '21 and Mina Mandic '21 were named two of the five ISEF finalist spots for Minnesota (pictured). Anthony's winning biology research project is entitled The Effects of Short Term Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation on Diatom Photosynthetic Productivity and Mina's research is in astrophysics and is entitled Exploring the Wonders of the Early Universe: Green Pea Galaxies and Light Flux.

ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. More than 1,700 high school students from over 70 countries and territories showcase their research at ISEF. Winners typically receive an all-expense-paid trip to compete at the national ISEF competition, which was to be held this year in May in Anaheim, California. However, the 2020 ISEF has been canceled.

"It is incredibly exciting and a huge honor for Mina and Anthony to be named ISEF finalists," says Karissa Baker, Upper School science teacher and ASR advisor. "While it is unfortunate that Mina and Anthony won't have the chance to present their work at ISEF and to interact with 1600 peers from around the world, this honor is no less exciting and worthy of many congratulations to these young researchers!"

In addition to Anthony and Mina's ISEF awards, SPA students also took home 15 additional awards during the ceremony presented by the Minnesota Academy of Science, as well as 35 sponsoring companies and organizations. 

• Minnesota Academy of Science Grand Awards
  • Aidan Lanz '20, Gold Award (Top 5% of projects)
  • Mina Mandic '21, Silver Award (Next 10% of projects)
  • Maya Choi '21, Bronze Award (Next 15% of projects)
  • Anthony Chen '21, Bronze Award (Next 15% of projects)
• Seagate Emerging Scientist Award (Top 10% of students competing in the state science fair for the first time)
  • Aidan Lanz '20
  • Mina Mandic '21
• American Fisheries Society, Minnesota Chapter Aquatic Science Excellence Award
  • Maya Choi '21
• American Psychological Association, Outstanding Research in Psychological Science
  • Liam Will '20
• Beckman Coulter Award
  • Aidan Lanz '20, 1st place ($350)
• Minnesota Environmental Health Association, Award for Excellence in Environmental Health Science
  • Liam Will '20, 3rd place ($50)
• SPIE: The International Society for Optics and Photonics
  • Mina Mandic '21, 3rd place ($100)
• US Air Force, Air Force Achievement Award
  • Mina Mandic '21
  • Richard Chang '20
• Wolfram Mathematica, Mathematica Software Award
  • Mina Mandic '21
  • Aidan Lanz '20

Five SPA Advanced Science Research students also competed in this year's North Central Regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), which they qualified for at the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair held in February. The JSHS is a "paper competition" where students submit their written research papers for review and at the regional level, they present a PowerPoint presentation of their research to a panel of judges. This year, presentations were submitted online as narrated slideshows.

At the 2020 regional competition, three ASR students—Anthony Chen '21, Maya Choi '21, and Mina Mandic '21—moved on to the second round of judging. Mina Mandic was the named second-place winner in the competition, which qualifies her for the national JSHS competition. Mina is only the second student in SPA history to qualify for JSHS Nationals. Typically, this would be an all-expense-paid trip to compete in Arlington, Virginia but due to this year's circumstances, Mina will be participating in the virtual competition in mid-April.

Over the last several weeks, Baker has reflected on her student's resilience and ability to adapt to changes happening in school and, especially, in these high-level competitions. "I was so impressed with how the research students shifted, in a very short period of time, from planning and preparing for in-person competitions to creating top-notch virtual presentations for these remote competitions," she says. "Through our research program, students ask novel research questions, develop their own methods, collect, analyze and interpret data, and engage in communicating their research in all the modes that scientists communicate—research papers, formal presentations, and engaging with peers and judges. Their ability to nimbly communicate their work to a broad audience while adapting to this year's challenges is remarkable and certainly worthy of this bevy of remarkable awards!"