SSA Students' Achievement in Arizona Science and Engineering Fair (AzSEF)

Sonoran Science Academy – Tucson students did not have much of a spring break this year. Instead, they dedicated it to science! With spring break falling during competition season, SSA science students competed in the state Science Olympiad in Phoenix, on March 13^th, the Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair (SARSEF) here in Tucson from March 16^th to March 20^th, and the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair (AzSEF) in Phoenix from March 22^nd to March 24^th. They started off spring break with a bang at the state Science Olympiad coming away with awards in 10 categories including a first place finish by Joshua Djakaria, and Vlad Kovalsky in the category of waves, and a second place finish by Stephen Argentati and Joshua Djakaria in the category of Astronomy after just 3 weeks of preparation. Everyone came away from this competition with hope, enthusiasm, promises of long hours of studying and preparation for next year’s competition, and also with an understanding that science can be fun. See previous articles for other Science Olympiad awards.

20 SSA students headed up to Phoenix on March 22^nd to compete in the state science fair AzSEF. Three 6^th graders, Sixteen 8^th graders, and one 10^th grader participated in this special event. AzSEF’s judging interviews now counted toward the junior high scores. Before at SARSEF they were just for practice and did not factor into their scores. SSA students would get a chance to really impress the judges with the knowledge that they had gained from these projects. At the awards ceremony on Tuesday night March 24^th, seven SSA students would come away #1 in their category, one 2^nd place, and four students received 4^th place overall in their categories. Already Joshua Sloane and Ostin Zarse had been chosen to go to ISEF by the SARSEF committee one week earlier, but AzSEF would award this honor to yet another SSA student. AzSEF chose just 3 of the best Junior Division projects in the state to go to ISEF as observers. Stan Palasek was given the Grand Award at AzSEF which entitled him to this honor. Now, Stan will join his peers in Reno, Nevada with their teacher Mr. Hobbins. Because this year’s 8^th grade class had so many phenomenal projects, with 6 of them receiving 1^st place honors in their categories, Mr. Hobbins was chosen for the Top Teacher Award for 2009 for the Junior Division. Everyone left this night in celebration of the students’ unbelievable successes and a renewed excellence in science education at SSA. Students are already thinking about what they can do for next year’s projects!

You can See below for the AzSEF Awards.

Top Teacher Award Junior Division 2009

Middle Row: Mr. Bayraktar, Nicholas McFarlin, Stan Palasek, Aarik Benson, Michael Giordano, Bogdan Racolta, Logan Calendine, and Stephen Argentati

Front Row: Keenan Anderson, James Mendola, Anissa O’Campo, Jessica Resco, and Sarah Hindeyeh