By Paul J. Condra
I was just shocked, said Gorin, the
first-ever Lynbrook student to enter the regional contest.
In May, Gorin will compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Louisville, Ky. The largest and only international student high-school science fair, he will compete against students from 48 states and 40 countries for various grants, scholarships and other prizes, including a $50,000 scholarship and a trip to Stockholm, Sweden for the Nobel Prize awards ceremony. According to ISEF, there are about $2 million in prizes up for grabs.
The regional competition, LISEF, took place on March 5, and the finalists were invited back for another round of judging on March 19. Gorin's project took first honors in the biochemistry category of the event.
I didn't even expect to make it to the second day. he said. I would have been happy just knowing I was invited back for the second day.
Like other Intel sponsored science competitions, the ISEF encourages students to seek out mentorship opportunities at colleges in the areas where they live.
Gorin said he started up an e-mail correspondence with Dr. Beverly Clendening at Hofstra University, which grew into an opportunity for him to spend time there last summer and learn some of the method behind genetic research.
I came across her name simply by searching the Web site, he said.
From there, Gorin and his mentor began to structure the project he would eventually submit to the LISEF. It is a paper entitled, The Use of P-Elements to knock out Genes in Drosophila Melanogaster. As Gorin explained, his work is a small part of the larger scientific effort to pinpoint the exact function of every gene in the genome.
It's a very theoretical paper, Gorin said, as he tried to sum up his work in layman's terms.
For his research, he bred different species of common fruit flies and examined the genetic results, or mutations. He said the work kept him busy for six or seven months, and he spent four months checking on his family of flies three times a day. To do that, Gorin said he had to transport his 200 to 300 vials of flies with him wherever he went, even on family vacations upstate.
The more the merrier, he said, displaying one of the vials during an interview in the research lab at Lynbrook High School. About four inches tall and an inch in diameter, the vial was filled with hundreds of tiny flies swimming in a blue gooey substance that Gorin said was fly-food.
I secretly knew Mike would go all the way. He believes in what he's doing, said Gorin's science teacher, David Shanker. He's got the flies in his bedroom, in his car, he can't go anywhere without his flies.
Still, Gorin said he enjoyed the work. He likes to think that his research is a small piece of a larger puzzle, a piece whose implications are limitless.
I like the challenge, he said. I'm not discovering, but I'm helping to develop a technique that could locate the cancer gene, or the AIDS gene.
And his dedication has paid off. There are over one million entries in the nearly 500 Intel ISEF affiliated fairs held around the world. Those winners are sent to compete at the ISEF, which is now in its 53rd year, in 14 different scientific categories, from Earth and Space Science to Microbiology. It is the self-described Olympics, World Cup and World Series of science fairs.
Though not as heavily publicized as the Intel Science Talent Search competition, Shanker said he believes
the ISEF offers more opportunity to the kids who compete in it.
This is more prestigious and lucrative for the kids, Shanker said, adding that it's unfortunate the publicity isn't equal for both of the contests.
Shanker heads the student research laboratory at Lynbrook High School, where even after the Friday bell has rung, several students still linger in the classroom amid various caged rodents, beakers and buzzing computers.
It is the success of this laboratory, a very recent addition to Lynbrook High School, that teachers credit with helping to energize students to stay involved in school activities.
They're not forced to be here, said Lynbrook principal Santo Barbarino.
