By Paul J. Condra
This year's winner, senior Jonathan Korber, was selected for his work analyzing the relationships between tornadoes and sunspots.
I was very surprised, I had no idea my project was that good, said Korber, who was at home with the flu when the winners were announced last Wednesday, Jan. 16.
Michele Korber, Jonathan's mom, said she had to relay the message to her son because he was too ill to get out of bed to talk on the phone.
What are the odds that I'm going to get sick on the day they announce the winners of the contest? Jonathan said.
This was the second year Malverne students had entered the 61-year-old STS competition after the school invested in a new science research program in 1998. The decision appears to be paying off. Last year, there were five student submissions, of which one was chosen as a semifinalist. Two students entered this year, with one semifinalist.
But this was definitely a year to
remember for Long Island high schools as they took nearly 30 percent of the 300 awards presented nationwide. Of 1,562 applicants, 88 of the winners were from Long Island.
According to Intel, students are judged based on the extent of their research, the originality of their project and their ability to think creatively. Research projects are not limited and cover all disciplines of science, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, social science and biology.
Korber's project is the culmination
of three years of data compilation
and analysis. His work seeks to identify
a relationship between sunspot activity (sunspots occur by changes in the
sun's magnetic field and are believed to release energy that may affect the earth's weather patterns) and the occurrence of tornadoes.
Korber said the starting point for his research was similar work he discovered by scientist H.A. Hazen, which was published near the end of the 19th Century. Hazen concluded there was no such relationship, but Korber points out there were limitations to doing this type of research at that time: namely, there wasn't as much data available to him.
The high school student collected
about 100 years' worth of tornado data
for 16 eastern states, as well as
sunspot activity over the same time
period. He then entered the information
by hand
