By:JOSEPH KELLARD
Producing three semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search this year speaks to the uncommon support all the students in the program at Oceanside High School demonstrated, according to their advisors.
Bevin Cohen, Kristin Lurie and Adam Moss were among 75 Long Island high school students and 300 nationwide who earned semifinalist spots in America's most famous research contest -- a year after their school produced no semifinalists.
"The entire class, not just the winners," said Renee Barcia, science research coordinator at OHS, "exhibit the qualities that are necessary for success in both publication and in competition: intelligence, motivation, perseverance, and the belief and focus in their work."
"With this particular group of kids," said Lisa Mehr, a research teacher, "there was a sense of commitment and support for each other that is really admirable and unique."
For Cohen, earning semifinalist status has, so far, been the culmination of a rewarding year of research, after her paper, entitled "Factors Associated with Hand-Hygiene Practices in Two Neo-Natal Intensive Care Units," was published in the June issue of the Pediatric Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Asked which was more important to her, earning semi-finalist status or getting published in a peer-review journal, Cohen said both were significant for different reasons. "Having your work published in a peer-review is important because you are adding to a base of knowledge," she said. "The prestige that an Intel semifinalist brings to one's community is important in its own right, because it incites publicity and funding and other things that help people to keep doing research."
On learning that OHS produced three semifinalists, Cohen said she first thought "how great for this school it was, because it really justified our excellent program, teachers and science department that has suffered a lot of community and parental backlash."
While Cohen's work showed significant results in hand-hygiene practices that could help explain certain infections spreading through a hospital, a study she conducted at Columbia University under Dr. Elaine Larson, Lurie researched a class of cancer-related drugs with the potential to combat tuberculosis, and Moss produced a psychology paper pertaining to visual attention.
What Cohen, Lurie and Moss share with all Intel students is the amount of time and effort they must devote to their research. Lurie spent most of her summer at Stony Brook under the direction of Dr. Peter Tonge, and persevered through some obstacles she faced at the lab there, whether it was lacking the space to work or the proteins she needed to conduct her research. Moss trekked to New York University to do research with Dr. Marisa Carrasco from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each weekday.
Lurie found her research interesting because, she said, "It is such a necessity to work and find new drugs." And it appears her study made such a discovery. Her paper concluded that one of the compounds in cancer-related drugs could possibly be used as a new drug to treat tuberculosis.
Moss's study focused on a process called motor control, which involves a subject's responses to stimuli on a screen rather than indirectly, and how these change the symmetries in the visual fields. "Humans tend to have more accuracy in the upper half of the visual field and across the horizontal plan," he explained, "than in the bottom half and the vertical plane."
Moss said his Intel research was "a really good experience," but he's unsure whether he'll pursue science in college. Cohen expressed an interest in performing further scientific research. Lurie, however, noted that her Intel project only confirmed that she definitely wants to continue with scientific study. "This experience made me sure of what I want to do," she said.
Ed Wilensky, science chairman at OHS for the past year, said, "Both the students and teachers are very committed here."
Each semifinalist earned $1,000, and they will be considered for 40 finalist spots nationwide, to be announced Jan. 28. If chosen, they will be beckoned to Washington, D.C., in mid-March to compete for a top scholarship prize of $100,000.
Great Neck North High School had the most semifinalists, with six. Oceanside's three put it in league with Half Hallow Hills East, Jericho, Manhasset and North Bellmore's Wellington C. Mepham.
Barcia said that while scientific competitions are important, they're not indicators of a student's total ability and potential. To be published in a peer-review journal, as Cohen was, is more telling. "To be published and recognized by your peers in the research community in the work that you are doing is, by far, the best accomplishment," Barcia said. "And that is what our program is geared toward."
