Tuesday, May 16, 2012

After the students went to the competition venue in the morning to put the finishing touches on their displays, the group had a short tour of the Andy Warhol museum.  No one, except judges, is permitted in the competition area until the students give their talks on Wed. The special awards and grand awards judges (more about  that on Wed. post) visit the 1,600 projects to get a flavor of the level and range of projects that they will be judging. The judges go to the display boards go over the student abstracts read papers and check out logbooks that are at the students’ area. 

The only student and teacher who did not go to the Andy Warhol museum were Trinity Russell and Mr. Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz dropped Trinity off at the student-Nobel prize winner luncheon. Trinity was selected to have lunch with the eight Nobel prize winners and Intel leaders.  She had a great time!

The people in the panel were incredibly humble in light of their accomplishments, and they gave students excellent advice and encouragement. Each on saw a bright future for our planet, they were optimistic about the use of science to help us understand and solve many global issues. The panel discussion was videoed, and Mr. Kurtz captured Trinity on video (to be shown later).  The photos included in the blog are Trinity on the giant screen stating her question and Dr. Carl Wieman, Nobel Prize in Physics (1995) responding. 

Tomorrow is a very grueling day indeed for the students.  Our young scientists will be sequestered with the judges all day from around 9 am to 6 pm.  They could have 20 judges, who are responsible for all kinds of awards. 

They should make us all proud, who knows if they will win any awards, but each one could not have put in more effort and work towards this event.  As the Nobel prize winners stated today, successful scientists need to be creative, do things that others say cannot be done and be passionate about what they do.  Our Commack kids have shown this throughout the year.  Will get back to you tomorrow. 

Up and out by 730 am this morning.  We took the shuttle bus to the convention center.  There were a sea of students dressed to perfection, some in the standard formal dress and some in their native dress. Our students were calm as they have practiced so much and know their work so well.  They are just confident enough without going overboard. The teachers met the students for lunch by the river. They were excited. Telling each other how many judges they got, grand and special awards, navy, army etc.  They have another 5 hours to go and went back to the judging with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement.  If we could harness their positive energy, there would be no energy crisis! 

One note: Rebecca got a text from ISEF asking her if she would be willing to be on a radio show to be interviewed.  So I will be taking her to the interview tomorrow morning.  I do not think I will send out another report until the morning.  We will meet the students at 7 pm to go to Heinz field, where the Steelers play for a social event. 
 Thanks for following.

Good morning Commack!  The Commack four were excited and satisfied with their efforts in the judging round yesterday.  They were all tired but thrilled to have had such a wonderful opportunity.  They all had Grand Award and Specialty judges. The questioning was intense but with their level of effort, practice, and poise, they were able to handle most of the questions with confidence. There were some great stories of judges asking tough questions and a student pulling out a creative answer just in time. For example, in front of a Navy judge, Rajkumar pulling out a quote from his memory of President Kennedy talking about the importance and serious problem of clean drinking water.  Rebecca being able to explain, in detail, the nuances of machine computer language to a computer science judge. Trinity was able to connect her research on fruit flies to medical issues in humans.  Steve demonstrated the importance of his work to the future of cancer drug treatments.  

After the judging, the students had an amazing time at Heinz Field (home of the Steelers)/Science Center/Sports Complex. These 3 places are next to each other so the students could go to any venue they wanted.  The concession stands were all open for food that was available courtesy of ISEF.  

Rebecca will be heading off this morning a bit earlier than the other students. She was asked to do a radio interview, I will send out a report later about that.  The students will be at their boards for 4 hours today.  It is public day, this is when anyone can come to view the students’ work.  Usually there are student groups, parents, teachers and many people from the local community who come to this event.  I cannot wait as I will be able to view the projects that I have been really eager to see.  For example one where a student built a robotic arm that he controls with brain waves or bomb sniffing honey bees.  Later!

Good Afternoon from Pittsburgh!  The public, including the teachers, got to peruse the floor of the competition, finally!   What I saw among all the students was a sea of brilliance.  It takes your breath away to meet, talk with and discuss the projects with students.  I picked out certain project based on my interest, projects that were similar to ones that other Commack students are doing back home or projects from interesting countries or states.  For example, a project completed by a student from Montana who is a in graduating class of 9, or a student working on Carnivorous plants that is related to work done by some Commack 9th graders.  I enjoyed talking with students from Turkey working with honey bees.  Four Commack students interacted with the public for 4 hours today. They got lots of attention. I took a lot of videos and pictures.  The pictures here I hope give you a feel for the day.  We are off in a couple of hours to the Special Awards Ceremony. 

This is the last ISEF 2012 post. The results are in and as you probably know our students did fantastic.  The awards ceremony was so wonderful, full of pure joy for so many students and countries.  I know that our students were inspired as well as our younger Commack research students who,  may in the future, have the opportunity to attend ISEF which will be held in Phoenix, Arizona next year. Hearing the announcer say our school 4 times at the awards ceremony Friday evening was such a treat, I wish that all of you could have been there.  I have included some final photos.  Rebecca is working on putting together a video from all the video that was shot of the event.  We will let you know when that will be posted. Thanks for reading. Rich Kurtz