Three Oklahoma students won prestigious awards last week (May 13-18) at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Jenna Reed Huling of Ada, Joseph Christopher Woodson of Tulsa and Elizabeth Grace Curran of Moore competed with nine other students from across the state as “Team Oklahoma.”
All 12 students earned the right to attend ISEF by competing in one of the eight ISEF-affiliated Oklahoma regional fairs and the Oklahoma State Science and Engineering Fair which is held annually at East Central University in Ada.
The Oklahoma students displayed their research at the ISEF beside 1,500 of the best 9th to 12th grade science and engineering projects from 446 ISEF-affiliated fairs in approximately 70 countries, regions and territories. Fair participants competed for more than $3 million in awards.
Jenna Reed Huling, the big Oklahoma winner, is a senior from Ada High School. She received an $8,000 tuition scholarship from the Office of Naval Research on behalf of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Her project, titled “Enhanced Adsorption of Arsenic on Aquifer Solids and Soil, Phase II: Oxidative Treatment and Feasibility Assessment,” also won a $1,000 ISEF third-place award in the environmental science category.
Joseph Christopher Woodson, 18, a home-schooled student from Tulsa, received a $2,000 award from the American Meteorological Society plus a certificate, an AMS Journal/Bulletin Archive DVD and a one-year student membership to the AMS. His computer science project is titled “Efficient Automated Generation and Dissemination of Meteorological Data Representations.”
Samantha Elizabeth Grace Curran, a senior at Southmoore High School in Moore, received a United States Army Award of $1,500, a certificate of achievement and a gold medallion. Her biochemistry research is titled “Sweet Poison: A Second Year Study.”
The other Oklahoma students who displayed their science and engineering projects at ISEF were Chandler Holliman and Catherine Hine, 9th graders from Bartlesville Mid-High School; Hayden Allen and Gage Holleman, sophomores at Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa; Hannah Pagels, a sophomore at Grove High School; Mishana Ellison, a sophomore at Latta High School; Mattie Dragoo junior at Muskogee High School; and Jake Evans and Dakota Keys, sophomores at Vici Public Schools.
More than 5,000 student projects competed at school fairs that lead into the Oklahoma fairs.