The regional Chemagination contest took place this past May 17 at Queensborough Community College, Bayside, NY.  Dr. Vijaya L. Korlipara, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, St. John's University was the contest coordinator. The Princeton & Trenton sections were ably represented by the first place category winners from our local competition, which was held this past February 23. They were:

 

Alternate Energy: “Fusion of He-3”, Shawn Carrick, Samir Koppolu and Dan Messina, West Windsor- Plainsboro High School South

 

Medicine/Healthcare: “Self-Correcting Contact Lenses”, Neeli Mishra, Anna Lee Scharfstein and Athena Xie, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South

 

New Materials: “Oh, What Tangled Prosthetic Limbs We Weave”, Samantha Lee, Urjita Sudula and Brynja Winnan, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South

 

Environment: “Kelp Help”, David Hao, Piyush Poddar and Alp Yurter, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South

 

We are pleased to announce that two of these teams went on to win first place in their categories at MARM 2008! The first place winners of the regional contest were: Alternative Energy: “Third Generation Solar Materials”, Hunter College High School Environment: “Kelp Help”, West Windsor-Plainsboro H.S. South Medicine/Health: “Apollites”, Division Avenue High School, New Materials: (tied for first place) - “Smart Clothes”, Half Hollow Hills High School West - “Oh, What Tangled Prosthetic Limbs We Weave”, West Windsor-Plainsboro H.S. South Princeton & Trenton Section

 

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Chemagination, sponsored by the Princeton and Trenton Sections of the American Chemical Society, was held at Princeton University on Saturday, February 23, 2008.

 

Chemagination is a contest in which high school students are asked to imagine that they are living 25 years in the future and have been invited to write an article for ChemMatters, a magazine for high school students that focuses on the role of chemistry in everyday life. The subject of the article is: “Describe a recent breakthrough or innovation in chemistry and/or its applications that has improved the quality of people’s lives today.” The article is written to fit in one of four categories (either Alternative Energy Sources, Environment, Medicine/Health, or New Materials). Student teams are judged on the quality of their article and knowledge of their topic, demonstrated in an interview by judges.

 

West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South

 

Thirteen teams of 2-3 students participated in the event. Our judges, Dr. Barbara Ameer, Ms Tikva Carrick, Mr. James DeNoble and Dr. Randy Weintraub had the difficult task of selecting the winners among a strong field of entries. Prizes were awarded for first and second place in each category. First place team members received $100 savings bonds and second place, $50 bonds. The first place winners will go on to compete in the regional contest to be held Sunday, May 17 at the ACS Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM 2008), Queensborough Community College, Bayside, Queens, NY.

 

While the judges tallied their scores, students and guests attended a demonstration on the “Chemistry of Magic” ‘performed’ by Dr. Kathryn Wagner and her able magician's assistants, chemistry majors Trevor Rudge and Shengyang Wu.

 

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who helped to make this event a success. A special thank you goes out to faculty advisors Carol Peabody from Delaware Valley Regional HS, and Karen Galley and Cindy Jaworsky from West Windsor-Plainsboro HS South.