West Shore took home three “Best of Shows” and three runner-up “Best of Shows at the Brevard South Science and Engineering Fair recently. In addition, Wilcats took 17 out of 26 first-place awards. The school entered 138 projects.  

Science research teacher Mary Schropp has been involved in the science fair for many years.

“I was a state science fair judge a long time and interacting with the students at fair caused me to want to go into teaching,” she said. “When I started working at West Shore in 2000, I began helping [science teacher Paula] Ladd with some of her research projects.” 

This year’s entries include a wide array of creativity.

“Projects ranged from involving cancer cells, water temperatures affect on sponges, mathematical modeling, facial recognition, Alzheimer’s, 3D printing and water quality,”  Schropp said.

The winners will compete in the 2019 State Science and Engineering Fair on March 26 in Lakeland.

“Seventeen kids will be moving on to the state fair,” Schropp said. “Lasya Damaraju won a week-long trip to Phoenix to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair.  Pooja Shah and Brooke Renschler are competing for a spot to also go to ISEF.”

Renschler will be moving on to State.

“My science fair project was fabricating contrived Chondrus macroalgae extract for the purpose of determining its structural integrity compared to PETE plastic,”  Renschler said. “[Chemistry teacher] Klaasen helped me with my project at Palm Bay High where I did my testing.”  

This was not Renschler’s first science fair.

“The science fair at the Melbourne Square Mall was stressful as I had some tough competition, however, I think this fair was better than the Merritt Island Fair we attended last year,”  Renschler said.

Renschler did well with her science fair project.

“I got first place in engineering and got runner-up Best of Show for physical projects,”  Renschler said.

She will be competing at the state science fair this year and maybe at others.

“I was also invited to go to at least three other science fairs with one being a runoff competition that decides who will go to internationals in Arizona,”  Renschler said.

Schropp offered advice to future science fair contestants.

“If the kids would start their testing a little earlier in the year this would make the fair smoother toward the end,” she said. “This would allow extra time for them to practice their speeches which in turn would help them tremendously.”  

Schropp, Ladd, Klaasen, Andrew Madden and Maggie Molledo is the team of science teachers that coordinated West Shore’s entries.

The breakdown of the winners is as follow:

Runner Up Best in Show Senior Biological

Pooja Shah, West Shore Jr/Sr High School, “Density Dependent Signaling in the Model Eukaryote- Chlamydomonas reinhardtii”

Best in Show Senior Physical

Lasya Damaraju, West Shore Jr/Sr High School, “Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) Decorated with CdS Quantum Dots for Melanoma Treatment”

Runner Up Best in Show Senior Physical

Brooke Rentschler, West Shore Jr/Sr High School, “Fabricating a Bioplastic Contrived of Chondrus Macroalgae Extract for the Purpose of Determining the Structural Integrity and the Rate at Which it Erodes”

Best in Show Junior Biological

Aidan Meyers, West Shore Jr/Sr High School, “Determining the prophylactic effects of melanin and various essential oils against erythema and photo carcinogenesis in epithelial cells simulated using Saccharomyces cerevisiae – Year 2”

Runner Up Best in Show Junior Biological

Laya Damaraju, West Shore Jr/Sr High School, The Effectiveness of Radiated Gold Nanoparticles Treated with Different Amounts of Near Infrared Light (NIR) on the Inhibition of Cell Growth and Metastasis Simulated Using Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Best in Show Junior Physical

Faith Collins, West Shore Jr/Sr High School, “Using Machine Learning to Develop an Image Steganography Detection Software”

Senior Animal Science

First Place Brianna Valverde, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Second Place Divya Reddy, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Tehya Bahsoun, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Behavioral & Social Sciences

Second Place Bonnie Radican, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Rebecca Benezra, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Blinn Atchley, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Spencer Wilson, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Behavioral & Social Sciences

Second Place Smriti Sanjay-Gopal, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Jenna Franklin, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Viorel Silaghi, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Alex Nixon, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Emily Shoemaker, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Biomedical & Health Sciences

First Place Aidan Meyers, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Aarushi Vyas, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Biomedical & Health Sciences

First Place Madeline Huberman, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Second Place Sarah  Bahsoun, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Isha Patel, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Samantha Nukala, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Team Lucas Goldfarb & Kaylee Krininger, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Cellular/Molecular Biology & Biochemistry

First Place Laya Damaraju, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Cellular/Molecular Biology & Biochemistry

Second Place Kishen Mitra, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Taqua  Naas, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Chemistry

First Place Bianka Albert, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Chemistry

First Place Lasya    Damaraju, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Second Place Janet Lu, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Sydney Feldbush, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Sarah Metzler, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Earth & Environmental Sciences

First Place Ava Auter, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Ella Dorfman, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Jacob Weatherspoon, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Earth & Environmental Sciences

First Place Minaal Murshid, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Corrine Meyers, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Auston Gonzalez, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Sarah Langenbach, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Avery Kloeppel, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Engineering

Third Place Joshua Ogburn, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Rushil Shah, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Toby Konowitz, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Engineering

First Place, Brooke Rentschler, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Vincent Kessel, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Lance Obst, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Dylan O’Bryan, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Sam Gill, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Environmental Engineering

Second Place Adam Blais, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Environmental Engineering

Fourth Place Ashley Peters, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Reinaldo Alers, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Tristin Quach, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Intelligent Machines, Robotics & Systems Software

First Place Faith Collins, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Intelligent Machines, Robotics & Systems Software

First Place Cameron Burrows, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Auria Rembert, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Mathematics & Computational Sciences

Third Place Ritvik Varada, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Mathematics & Computational Sciences

First Place Nathan Foo, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Microbiology

Second Place Ying Tan, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Reva Laddunuri, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Microbiology

First Place Iksha Handa, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Second Place Bailey Wong, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Second Place Alexandra Vernich, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Juliette Vento, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Lauren Novak, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Physics & Astronomy

First Place Nathan Boonsanguan, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Second Place Matthew Krininger, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Elizabeth Callahan, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Cole Gifford, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Physics & Astronomy

First Place Mahmood Syed, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Amanda McClure, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Junior Plant Sciences

First Place Madison Uhlmeyer, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Ian Giguere, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Shruti Puskur, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Fourth Place Anna Vittitoe, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Senior Plant Sciences

First Place Pooja   Shah, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

Third Place Emily Ortiz, West Shore Jr/Sr High School

By Olivia Blackwell