By Scott Brinton
Once again, Kennedy dominated in the annual Intel Science-Research Competition. Four of the 10 seniors who submitted research papers were named semifinalists in the prestigious contest. Last year, Kennedy boasted five semifinalists. Only 300 students from around the country reach this phase of the competition. The 2006 finalists will be named in the coming months.
This year's crop of Kennedy Intel honorees includes Michael Katz, 17, of Merrick; Sara Roberson, 17, of Merrick; Adam Solomon, 16, of Bellmore; and Scott Ulberg, 17, of Bellmore.
Mepham High School had two semifinalists: Robert Gambo, 17, and Joshua Seidman, 17, both of Bellmore. Calhoun had one, Brittany Russo, 17, of North Merrick.
Intel Science-Research students often devote upward of 1,000 hours to their projects over three years. Barbi Frank, who is one of Kennedy's two Intel research mentors and an Advanced Placement biology teacher, said, "The students are very intelligent, but they are passionate. Passion is what allows them to excel."
Barbara Franklin, Kennedy's other research mentor and a chemistry teacher, said, "Every one of these students runs into a major roadblock. What makes these students different is they push through those difficult times." They are, she said, determined.
Frank and Franklin noted that every Central High School District student who submits a paper to the Intel competition has performed college-level research, and the work is often graduate-school caliber.
Last Friday, the Herald stopped off at each of the Central District's three high schools to discuss the students' research papers with them.
Subhead, underline in a little larger text: Kennedy High School
Subhead: Michael Katz
If anyone were to become president of the United States in 30 or 40 years, Michael Katz would be the guy. Katz, who is valedictorian of his class and student government president, got interested in politics during the 2000 presidential election, when he was 11. Ever since, the world of politics has fascinated him. He is vice president of the Nassau County Youth Council, and he's been a campaign volunteer for Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer.
Katz also has his own tutoring company, MK Tutoring, which helps students in all subjects and the SAT. Next year he will attend the University of Pennsylvania.
Katz's research paper looked at -- what else? -- politics. He investigated the effect of negative advertising on an election outcome. Specifically, he examined the 2000 presidential campaign in Florida and Iowa. Katz pored over data collected by the Campaign Media Analysis Group, examining five major media markets in Florida and one in Iowa. He discovered that, contrary to popular belief, negative advertising is an effective tool for candidates, so long as they attack first. "First impressions matter," Katz said.
By slinging arrows before the opposition, a candidate is able to imprint a negative aura on his opponent. But when that opponent fights back, the public sees him or her as a crybaby.
Katz is now eager to delve into the 2004 presidential election, when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth pounced on Sen. John Kerry in August 2004, embedding what Katz believes was an irreversible impression in people's minds -- that Kerry wasn't telling the whole truth about his Vietnam service. The veracity of Swift Boat Veterans' claims didn't appear to matter.
Subhead: Sara Roberson
Sara Roberson is about as active as any teenager gets. The funny thing is, she wishes she had 36 hours in a day so she could do more.
Roberson is a Girl Scout who recently earned her Gold Award, Girl Scouts' highest honor. She is president of an Explorer Scout post that travels the country in search of outdoor adventure in places like the Grand Canyon. She's a member of Merrick's Junior Fire Department, of which she is a former captain. She rides horses in Melville. And she's an All-County flutist.
Her research paper looked at adolescents with borderline personality disorder; that is, teenagers who mutilate themselves with razors and other sharp objects, and who are often addicted to drugs and alcohol. Roberson employed statistical analysis to dissect a standard psychology test that measures the strength of a patient-therapist relationship. She found that the test was unreliable when dealing with teens who suffer from BDP.
Roberson theorized that young people with BPD have little or no trouble forming relationships, but they often purposely destroy those ties, so measuring their strength according to a standard test is nearly impossible.
Subhead: Scott Ulberg
Scott Ulberg is proudest of his work with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, for which he serves as a fund-raising captain. His sister, Staci, suffers from diabetes, and she inspired him not only to fund-raise, but also to conduct research into diabetes at Columbia University and Mt. Sinai Hospital. Ulberg is also a member of the varsity cross-country and winter and spring track teams. This past fall, the Kennedy cross-country team won the conference championship.
For his Intel project, Ulberg examined the effect of problem difficulty on group decision-making. What he found was that group decision-making helped only when the problem was of moderate difficulty. A group decision was unnecessary when the problem was easy. When it was hard, the group's many uncertain voices only created confusion. In the case of difficult problems, Ulberg believes, it's often better for people to first reflect on a question individually before offering their opinions to a group.
Subhead: Adam Solomon
Adam Solomon is no stranger to media attention. He caused quite a stir when, earlier this school year, he placed third in the nation in the Siemens-Westinghouse Science Research competition for an astronomy research paper on brown dwarf stars.
Solomon, who submitted his dwarf star paper in the Intel contest, is widely praised for his exceptional intellect and curiosity, which allowed him to skip a grade. When you meet him, though, you also find that he's a nice kid who is quicker to praise his friends' accomplishments than his own.
On the day Solomon's nine classmates were learning of Kennedy's success in the Intel competition, he was in Washington, D.C., presenting a paper on brown dwarfs at the 207th Astronomical Society symposium, a national conference packed with many of the country's leading scientists.
Subhead, Underline with larger text: Mepham High School
Subhead: Joshua Seidman
Josh Seidman defines scholar-athlete. He's an honors student who loves English as much, if not more, than science. He's a star on the Mepham basketball team, with a knack for hitting three-pointers. He's also a peer tutor, a member of the Students Against Destructive Decisions club and a contributor to "Fragments," the school's literary magazine.
Bill Leacock, a Mepham physics teacher and Seidman's mentor, secured the teen a research post at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Suffolk County this past summer. There, Seidman studied the relationship between cosmic rays and lightning bolts with renowned physicist Dr. Helio Takai, who is a friend of Leacock's.
You could call cosmic rays the detritus of the universe. They're subatomic nuclei that travel through space at just under light speed. Cosmic rays are offshoots of comets and exploding stars.
Seidman believes that an invisible electrical channel -- call it a giant electric cord, if you will -- is opened when a cosmic ray strikes a thunder cloud, allowing a massive electric current to shoot upward from the earth, causing lightning.
Seidman couldn't conclusively prove the theory, because there were only two lightning storms in Suffolk last summer. He hopes to continue his research on lightning as a physics major in college.
Robert Gambo
Unfortunately, Robert Gambo was absent from school last Friday, and was unavailable for an interview.
Underline with a little larger head: Calhoun High School
Subhead: Brittany Russo
To say that Brittany Russo pushes herself would be an understatement. The Calhoun senior is currently taking five Advanced Placement courses, and she completed four as a junior. She's the Calhoun Key Club president, and she takes part in a number of other extracurricular activities. She dances ballet privately, and plays the flute and drums. (She earned A's at Level VI, the highest level in the annual New York State Solo Music Association competition, with both instruments.)
To conduct her research, Russo camped out with her parents at the Best Western across the street from Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston -- Harvard's teaching hospital -- for six weeks during each of the past two summers. At Beth Israel, Russo conducted research with Dr. Alvaro Pascualo-Leone, looking at ways to improve a new medical technology for the blind that is under development at Beth Israel's Laboratory for Magnetic Brain Stimulation.
The system scans a room with a video camera. The camera then converts images into sound, which are fed into a subject's ears with headphones. The system probes from left to right. When the camera hits an object, it emits a higher pitch, allowing subjects to create "soundscapes" in their minds. Soundscapes aren't exact replicas of a room, but rather general impressions.
Russo loved her time at Beth Israel. "It was the experience of it, the opportunities I had to work with doctors and researchers in the lab," said Russo, who wants to become a neurologist.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
