By Rebecca Shalomoff
She had heard that birth order played a role in academic performance, so she put the theory to the test and found that first-born children would be naturally more intelligent, but younger children work harder.
No wonder because Frank, the youngest in her family, spent a lot of time and effort researching this project, which earned her a semifinalist slot in the nation's best-known high-school research contest. Six of her Lawrence High School classmates also were named semifinalists in the prestigious contest, for extraordinary work on their projects.
Among the individual, competing high schools in Nassau County, Lawrence produced the most winners in the Intel Science Talent Search. Two students from Hewlett High School and one from Rambam Mesivta in Lawrence were also named semifinalists, confirming that the Five Towns area is a wellspring of teenage science whizzes.
Long Island students earned a record 88 slots in the national competition, taking nearly 30 percent of the 300 awards presented. Each semifinalist receives a $1,000 scholarship, and the schools receive a matching $1,000 grant. Forty finalists will be named later this month. Top prizes, including $100,000 for the first-place contestant, will be announced March 11 in Washington, D.C.
As usual, students, like Frank, researched projects that stem from their personal experiences, while others studied more cryptic subjects.
Premal Trivedi, who transferred to Hewlett High School last year, isolated a gene that regulates plant growth. His work, under the direction of Terrence Bissoondial, could improve crop yield all over the world.
Researchers didn't know the gene existed, Trivedi said. We discovered the gene and compared it to the information that was already present.
Rambam Mesivta's first semifinalist is Mordechai Bronner, the only yeshiva student to be named an Intel semifinalist this year, whose project dealt with tire safety. He completed his research at SUNY Stony Brook under the guidance of Miriam Rafailovich and also with researchers at Exxon Corp. Bronner developed a chemical compound that can help prevent tread separation, which has killed hundreds of people and injured thousands in the past few years.
It makes me feel good to know that my work could save lives, he said.
Bronner already received a patent for his work, as did his classmate, Michael Goldman, who also spent his summer at Stony Brook studying the heating of Plexiglas at high temperatures. They were the first students from Rambam to enter the Intel Science Talent Search after Debbie Solomon, director of college guidance at the private school, brought it to their attention.
Beth Malinowski, a senior at Lawrence High School, spent two summers at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, observing the behavior of Kigeni, a mandrill mangabey hybrid
