Local girls shine at state science fair Local girls shine at state science fair (July 14, 2004)

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

When they were choosing county science-fair winners to go to the annual state fair, the papier-mache volcano with baking-soda lava must have been overlooked, along with the blinking flashlight using a potato for a battery. Fun to make, maybe, but no longer competitive.

Consider La Entrada Middle School seventh-grader Evie Pless' study of transmitting modulated sound pulses with a laser, including a test run at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Evie's experiment took first place in the electricity and electronics category, junior division.

Then there is Corte Madera Middle School seventh-grader Maya B. Mathur's investigation of the differential effects of visual and auditory stimuli on memory. She won second place in the behavioral science category.

Dana Feeney, an eighth-grader at Woodside Elementary School, won another first-place award in the environmental science category. Last year, she won for studying the effects of artificial light pollution on pond-dwelling zooplankton. This year, she moved her investigation to deep lakes and included natural light as a factor.

Evie, Maya and Dana were three of the local winners at the annual contest for middle- and high-school students, held this year on May 24 and 25 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Some 300 professional scientists and engineers were on hand to judge the work of 924 students from 350 schools, including 15 students from schools in Woodside, Atherton, Menlo Park and Portola Valley. To be eligible for the state fair, students must win a prize at a county science fair. From San Mateo County, 46 students entered this year.

Katherine K. Gifford, a sixth-grader at Woodside, received honorable mention in the social sciences category for "Slow Down, You Move Too Fast," a study of speeders on Woodside Road.

Eleven other local students were in Los Angeles for the fair this year. From Woodside Elementary were seventh-graders Bryce Cronkite-Ratcliff, Brenna Fitzpatrick, and Brianna Weiss; and eighth-graders Megan Fisher and Michael Fisher.

La Entrada and Corte Madera middle schools were represented by seventh-graders Laura B. Mitchell and Kyle R. Rothschild-Mancinelli, respectively.

From St. Joseph's School of the Sacred Heart in Atherton were Jonathan B. Beckman and Alexander M. Craig, both eighth-graders.

The only local high school students at the state fair this year were Collin N. Cronkite-Ratcliff and Robbie J. Eaton of Menlo-Atherton High School.

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