Rounding off a fast-paced April, our best and brightest ACP scientists performed at the annual AzSEF Science Fair. Hosted at Hamilton High School, and managed by the Arizona Science Center, the competition compiles Arizona’s greatest scientists in a display of projects spanning across various topics.
Taking place on April 4-5, the competition was a tremendous success for our Knights. Sophomore ACP scientist Kristin Meyers met with me to discuss the success of our students at AzSEF and her own involvement with the competition.
Q: How did ACP perform at AzSEF?
A: ACP did very well at AzSEF! We had many participants, and several people ended up placing at state.
Q: Did we in any awards? If so, what were they?
A: Yes, although my project did not win anything specific awards at state, several ACP projects did win. Here are the ones that I remember, but there were a few more as well:
-Sebastian Javadpoor, Tej Patel, and Sophia Sun won 3rd place in the Behavioral/Social Science Category
-Yibo Chen won 3rd place
Q: What project got you into AZSEF?
A : My project was called “The Effect of a Single Mutation in the F8 or F9 Gene on Protein Function and the Corresponding Development of Hemophilia”. It was in the cellular and molecular biology category and involved the analysis of different genes to determine mutational probabilities for gene therapy application.
Q: What did you learn from the experience?
A: I learned that the AZSEF has a lot of competitive and interesting projecting relating to new scientific developments. It can take a lot of work to prepare a project for AZSEF, but it can also be fun.
Q: What advice can you give for students who want to attend AZSEF?
A: If a student wanted to qualify for AZSEF in the future, I would recommend that student choose a category and topic of interest, since they will
need to spend a lot of time working on it. Also, it would be a good idea to research the application of that experiment to real-life.
Q: What’s your favorite part of AZSEF?
A: My favorite part of AZSEF was learning about the different science projects and applications that people have been working on this year. I also had fun getting to know the other people who participated in science fair this year.
The performance of our ACP Knights at AzSEF demonstrates the passion that our students put into their work. To be sure, the forefront of future scientific advancements will be at the hands of our own ACP alumni. Congratulations to Kristin Meyers and all of our ACP Knights who attended AzSEF!
