Research Semifinalists Set School Record at JSHS
JSHS semifinalists gather for a photo at York College, where the competition took place. Photo: Glenn Elert
By LIZI SOKHADZE
Midwood science students led by Mr. Glenn Elert and Ms. Stacy Goldstein set a new Midwood record on Sunday, February 11, at York College, with 15 students declared semifinalists and seven announced as finalists at the NYC Metro Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS). That topped the school’s previous record of 12, from 2018.
These top students now have the opportunity to compete in the National JSHS May 1–4 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as a chance to compete at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering.
“This is the largest group we have ever sent to JSHS,” Mr. Elert said. “The seniors this year are a very competitive bunch.”
Diana Chen Feng ‘24 and her partner Jennifer-Runling Fan ‘24 researched the effect of thermal stimulation on body ownership, as measured by the rubber hand illusion (RHI).
“The judges were very engaging and asked a lot of questions,” said Feng. “Their sincere interest made me less nervous compared to the time I presented at the St. Joseph’s High School Poster Session.”
“I was definitely surprised at how many semifinalists there were,” she added. “It was quite interesting to learn about the variety of projects that were done by students from other schools.”
Another semi-finalist, senior Emely Rivas, who studied solar flares and sunspot numbers, said the competition was “weird because everyone was very professional and no one was reading off of cards.”
“It was a new competition for me,” said Rivas. “I had never really done anything like it.”
Humayrah Hossain ‘24 worked with Nuzhat Tabassum ‘24 to research the impact hijabs have on hair loss. “My partner and I wanted to make our project more inclusive and see which lifestyle choice would contribute the most to alopecia caused by hijabs,” she said. “Being a semifinalist was honestly nerve-racking and exhilarating at the same time.”
The other senior semifinalists included Eman Shabbir, who studied racial implicit bias among physicians; Huiying Chen, who studied omission neglect; Chloe Wu, who studied the effect of makeup on perception; Rusanna Korotich and Christian Gabelman, who studied the effect of copper contamination in macroalgae environments; Batool Kamal, Ashley Castillo Mendez, and Hailey Lau, who studied neural synchrony within friendship; and Victoria Ronan and Lucy Guo, who studied the correlation between particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and working memory in adolescents.
The students belong to Midwood’s Science Research team, a STEM program coordinated by Mr. Elert. They meet a few times a month to work on exciting experiments, write reports on their findings, and participate in annual science fairs.
Students in the program need to be responsible enough to do independent work, be willing to work hard and come up with solutions if anything doesn't work out, and most importantly, like science!
If you’re a Med-Sci freshman and are interested in joining the program, ask about selecting the Science Research track. If enrolled, you will study research techniques in your sophomore year, after which you can apply to the actual Science Research program for your junior and senior years, where you can move on to bigger projects and set even higher records for Midwood, like our semifinalists at JSHS did this year!