By Lori BODNAR

Despite being held virtually, attendees of the Crescenta Valley High School Science Fair, held on Friday, Jan. 28, were surprised and intrigued by the engaging science projects presented. Sponsored by the Academy of Science and Medicine and organized by teachers Orenda Tuason and Alamelu Arunachalum, there were 18 students who presented projects to science fair judges.

“It is really truly a team effort. I really enjoy doing this,” said Arunachalum. “I helped my son [with science projects] when he started in kindergarten. When he was in high school, we did not have any judges to give him feedback, so I took him to professionals and they gave him feedback. I realized how much value that is, so we decided to [hold] a CVHS science fair.”

The 18 student participants completed 14 projects this year with some students working in groups. Each student presented their project to six judges of the 16 judges who participated. The student participants were Michelle Chung, Mantra Roointan, William Panosyan, Daniel Panosyan, Rosalia Park, Easan Hamkins, Debayon Roy, Mahesh Arunachalum, Justin Jeong, David Ajemyan, Kelly Fung, Shauna Hong, Maryam Akelyan, Marta Pambukhchyan, Haley Kim, Kalia Manayan, Christine Kim and Calliope Araz. Academy officers Nathan Pang and Kevin Dong maintained the breakout rooms for the students to present their projects.

The project of one student, Marta Pambukhchyan, was previously presented at the 2021 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Pambukhchyan represented United States at ISEF with her project on landfills.

“I was trying to find a liner that is more environmentally friendly,” Pambukhchyan explained. “I looked for a cheap alternative, especially for developing countries that can’t afford expensive landfill systems.”

Academy students Daniel and William Panosyan worked on two projects and sent their work to high school-level scientific journals. One of their projects was about global disparities in pediatric cancer survival rates.

“We considered multiple factors that could potentially correlate with these disparities, such as type of healthcare insurance, healthcare spending, ancestry-related genetics, and GDP per capita,” Daniel said. “The type of cancer we focused on was acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Analytical examinations of cancer survival data from ‘The Cancer Atlas’ were conducted in order to investigate GDP and ALL survival correlation. We discovered that there was a significant correlation between the GDP per capita of a country and its ALL survival rates and that relative economic progress of the country rather than absolute GDP numbers are more important for improving ALL care.”

Another student, Mahesh Arunachalum, also focused on cancer for his project.

“My project is about comparing different cultural diets and the therapeutic effects on cancer. At the very beginning of the project, I looked at various mortality rates of cancer in different regions. Turmeric is consumed in India and India has the lowest mortality rate, so I was wondering if there was a correlation there,” he said.

For her project CVHS Academy of Science and Medicine senior Mantra Roointan delved into Parkinson’s disease.

“My project was on identifying the most effective drug for Parkinson’s disease patients,” said Roointan. “I hope that in the future, if I continue research, I will be able to help those who suffer from Parkinson’s disease. With better treatments, people will be able to live better lives. Since I wasn’t able to do research in a lab, I did computer modeling of enzymes and drugs to analyze different characteristics and determined through that as a conclusion for my project.”

         Rosalia Park is a junior who attends CVHS Academy of Science and Medicine. Her project was about third-hand smoke.

Park said, “I tested third-hand smoke from the bathrooms. I went around and collected wipe samples from our bathroom walls. I worked with Dr. Ha at San Diego State laboratory to get my results analyzed. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there to analyze the samples with her because of COVID-19. I have experience analyzing sediment samples. I used spectrometry to find how much nicotine there was [on the bathroom walls].”

         The effect of urbanization was the focus of the project by junior Shauna Hong.

“I learned heavy metals have been discovered in soil. I wanted to see if urbanization had that effect on playgrounds. I found there was a linear relationship between pH content [soil acidity] and heavy metal concentrations,” Hong explained. “Rural park areas did not have as much heavy metal concentrations as urban park areas. Parks have heavy metal concentrations below toxicity levels. I still think we should monitor these sites.” 

         CVHS sophomore Justin Jeong’s project was about the reaction by snails to sound.

Jeong said, “I chose snails because they are not really studied much and I have snails in my aquarium.” His hypothesis was that the higher the sound and the frequency, the snails retract into their shells and it becomes hard for them to breathe.

“If predators were to attack it, it would be much easier prey,” said Jeong. “Louder sounds at lower pitch caused more snails to retract into their shells than quieter sounds at higher pitch.”

         Plant growth and carbon dioxide was the focus of the project of 11^th grader Kelly Fung.

“I had a bigger box for mung beans and added CO₂ on the top box,” Fung explained. “I took measurements of CO₂ and germination rates with a sprout pipe in each of the boxes. I had three boxes in total: one for a control, one for one-fourth pound of dry ice, one for one-eighth pound of dry ice. There weren’t any noticeable changes between the boxes. As I do more testing that may change but, as of now, there was no significant difference between any of the three boxes.”

The project of CVHS junior Maryam Akelyan focused on the effects of different battery case material on the efficiency of batteries.

CVHS eleventh-grader Maryam Akelyan said, “My experiment was about testing different casings and how it affected how the battery functions. The root of this project came from problems in the landfills. E-waste in the landfills is a big problem. The casings corrode and [batteries leak] into the environment, which can have detrimental effects.”

The 16 judges come from diverse backgrounds with different expertise in science. Among them were Dr. Marc Mcfoote, who has been working at JPL for 34 years, and Dr. Meera Srinivasan who also works at JPL and is an electrical engineer.

Judge Uma Sundaram is a senior associate scientist in therapeutics who works in drug discovery; her company’s main focus is oncology. Dr. Santosh Peddi is an analytical scientist and Dr. Eunha Hoh is a professor at San Diego State University.

         All the judges were united in their admiration of the work invested by the students in their projects.

         Second year Princeton molecular biology major Jiyoun Roh was a judge at the science fair.

“When I was in high school, the Academy of Science and Medicine gave me the opportunity to develop my scientific skills by participating in science fairs,” said Roh. “At each science fair, the judges were the ones to give me feedback that strengthened each detail of my projects. Now, I want to give back to my younger peers by serving as their judge. I was impressed by the student’s creativity, drive and, most importantly, passion.”