By Scott Brinton
The Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force jointly sponsor the competition's awards. Top prize is a $16,000 college scholarship. Several smaller scholarships are also awarded.
Students must earn the right to compete in the national contest by placing in the regional competition, which is set for March 3 at Adelphi University. If students qualify there, they head for Albuquerque, N.M., to compete in the nationals from April 26 to 30.
Kennedy seniors who qualified for the regional competition include Rozina Khouryawad of Bellmore, Jared Kirzner of Merrick, Rachel Shapiro of Bellmore, Wayne Simonetti of Merrick and Adam Solomon of Bellmore.
The Herald recently stopped off at Kennedy High to check out the students' projects.
Rozina Khouryawad
Khouryawad has always loved going to the dentist -- no kidding. Since she was a child, the dentist's myriad tools have fascinated her. "A lot of people miss the art in dentistry," said Khouryawad. The 17-year-old recently turned her interest into an award-winning science-research project in the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.
Khouryawad, who wants to be -- what else? -- a dentist, conducted her research at the New York University School of Dentistry, where she now has her own small office. She tested whether it is possible to grow new periodontal ligaments, which surround teeth and hold them in place. When patients have crowns put in place, they lose the periodontal ligament.
Khouryawad extracted cells from rats' periodontal ligaments and then seeded them onto special membranes donated by dental-supply companies. She then tested the cells on days one and 10 of her experiment. On day one, she found that the cells had attached to the membranes. On day 10, she found that they had proliferated, or grown.
Khouryawad oozes enthusiasm for dentistry and science research. "It's exciting. I love it," she said. "I want to make a difference."
Khouryawad is a member of a Middle Eastern dance group at St. John's Orthodox Church in Uniondale, where she also teaches Sunday school. She's a member of the Kennedy chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions and the variety choir. And she's a talented artist.
Jared Kirzner
Kirzner conducted experiments at the New York Obesity Research Center in Manhattan. He studied the relationship between calcium intake and body-fat content in children, as well as the relationship between sugar and body-fat content.
Kirzner found that children generally took in more calcium when they were younger, because parents would insist that they drink milk. But with time, they began drinking more sweetened beverages, which increased body fat.
In his spare time, Kirzner plays saxophone, guitar and piano. He is applying to a seven-year medical program.
Rachel Shapiro
Shapiro conducted research at Hofstra University. She applied hormones to cotton plants, dropping them at the base of the plant's ovary to see whether the hormones would increase cotton-fiber production.
Shapiro inspected the plants on the first day after pollination, at days three and four, and when the cotton plants were in full bloom. She conducted her experiment over the summer, and continued her research through November.
Shapiro is a member of three Kennedy choirs, and she studies dance at a Merrick studio. She plans to major in biology and pre-medicine in college.
Wayne Simonetti
Simonetti, who is Kennedy's 2006 salutatorian, was absent when the Herald stopped by Kennedy. He invented and built what he called a Gel Permeation Chromatograph to measure the molecular weight of polymers.
According to Webster's Dictionary, polymers are "naturally occurring or synthetic substances consisting of giant molecules formed from polymerization." The dictionary adds that polymerization is "the process of chaining together any simple molecules to form a more complex molecule with different physical properties."
According to Simonetti's entry form for the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, the machine he built will allow chemical engineers to maintain better quality control over polymers.
The New York Chemical Society has honored Simonetti. He is also president of Kennedy's Model United Nations, and he competes on the track team, among other activities.
Adam Solomon
Earlier this year, Solomon placed third in the nation with an astronomy research paper on brown dwarf stars. He was named an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist for the same paper. And now he has garnered accolades in the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium for his research.
Solomon, who skipped a grade, recently presented his paper on brown dwarfs at the 207th Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.
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