The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

STEM Fest

Spotlight on Science in the Schools

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Regeneron Finalists & 5th Annual STEM Fest Showcases How Science Reigns Supreme

Kumar and Singh Named Regeneron Finalists

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Society for Science & the Public has named 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. The competition, known as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search from 1942-1997 and the Intel Science Talent Search from 1998-2016, is designed to engage and inspire the next generation of scientific leaders. Alumni have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, found successful companies and invent groundbreaking medical treatments.

Two Horace Greeley Seniors were selected for this prestigious recognition, Chirag Kumar and Aditi Singh. Chirag Kumar’s project is titled “A Machine Learning Approach to Estimating the Error in Satellite Sea Surface Temperature Measurements.” Aditi Singh’s research is titled “Descriptive and normative accounts of color localization performance in visual short-term memory.” Senior Anna Zhang was selected in earlier competition as a Science Talent Search Scholar for her work, “Design and Analysis of an Artificial Intelligence Based System for Real-Time Detection of Texting and Driving.”

Kumar and Singh will travel to Washington, D.C. from March 7-13, 2019, where they will undergo a scrupulous judging process and compete with the other finalists for more than $1.8 million in awards. They will also have the opportunity to interact with leading scientists, meet with members of Congress and display their projects to the public at the National Geographic Society on March 10.

Fifth Annual STEM Fest Engages Young Scientists

More than 250 Chappaqua School district students, from elementary school through high school, will showcase their work at the Fifth Annual Chappaqua STEM Fest on Saturday, March 23rd. The event is at Bell Middle School, 50 Senter Street, Chappaqua, NY, from 9 am to 1 pm. Admission is free and open to the public.

The Chappaqua STEM Fest will feature student designed experiments, inventions and research. In addition, local and national companies will run hands-on activities at the STEM Fest. “We’re thrilled to be celebrating the fifth year of the Chappaqua STEM Fest,” said Lori Morton, Chair of the Chappaqua PTA STEM Committee. “The enthusiasm of our students is infectious. Their discoveries and inventions are brilliant and the event is packed with fun and informative STEM demonstrations and hands-on experiences!”

“This event is a terrific opportunity for our students to learn from, and teach, each other. Some students will wish to explore specific areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and others will be able to showcase a particular field of knowledge or skill related to those fields.  They will amaze, and be amazed by, one another and have a great time as well,” said Dr. Christina Ackerman, Superintendent of the Chappaqua Central School District.

A Note From New Castle Town Hall: The Pusheen Cats – Chappaqua’s First Lego League Champions

The Town Board was honored to welcome the Pusheen Cats. They are Chappaqua’s home team which won the overall championship at the 3rd Hudson Valley FLL (First Lego League) STEM championship held at the Bell School on January 19th. The Pusheen Cats developed an innovative habitat for human habitation on Mars. Their idea has won the praise of several NASA scientists! The team competed with 24 other teams at the Dutchess Community College on February 9th. Congrats to The Pusheen Cats!

STEM Fest Kids Describe their Projects

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Editor’s Note: STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Before this year’s STEM Fest day, held May 14th at the Bell Middle School, the following students volunteered to explain their projects to Inside Chappaqua! Here’s just a sampling of hundreds of projects and experiments the kids have been engaged in. For more information about STEM Fest, visit chappaquaptastem.com

IMG_2836Arnav Roy

Project: Knock Lock

This circuit is a small locking mechanism that opens or locks a box with a specific ‘knock.’ My circuit has a sound sensor called ‘piezo,’ which can sense vibrations as well as sounds. I wanted to build something that I could attach to my room door, so that only I have access to my bedroom. The best part was making the circuits itself, as I enjoy experimenting with circuits. In this project I soldered wires for the first time and that was fun. The hardest part was to get the right knock intensity to fall in an acceptable range of the code. For my future project, I want to work on an app for my Knock Lock.

parabolaGigi Wheeler

Project: Parabolas

I saw a film at the San Francisco Exploratorium about parabolas and got the idea for this project. A pendulum makes a parabola shape. There are all kinds of examples of parabolas in nature. I’m taking pictures of the ones I see and writing about them. I like taking the pictures. When this is over, I might want to study matter, or how dragonflies fly, or what infinity is.

NeelNeel Roy

Project: Coding

I coded a few different programs using ‘Python.’ Every Sunday, I take Python classes at my friend’s house. The best part about this project was creating new programs and playing with all the games that I made. The hardest part about this project was making the game, because if the coding was not right I would get a syntax error. Then I would have to go back again and find the code that was incorrect. In the future, I want to create a really big complicated game using code.

waterTessa Wheeler

Project: Testing for Lead

I had been hearing about the problem with water contamination in Flint, Michigan. My grandmother works in Flint at The University of Michigan’s Flint campus. So she collected some water and sent it to in the mail. It was hard to get it here safely. I then talked with my aunt’s boyfriend who works at the National Science Foundation about the best ways to test for lead. He said that using test strips is a fine indicator for lead presence, so I used that. I tested the water from Flint, Michigan, and thankfully it was negative for lead. I then decided to test some toys for lead. I started by researching what toys had been recalled. I found that one of our toys was recalled for lead. And a toy my sister recently received for her birthday even has a notice on it that it contains lead! I want to make sure kids are not getting toys with lead. For my next project, I want to do a study on the immune system or dwarfism.

HenryWilliam2Henry LePage and William Hollister

Project: A Small Scale Hovercraft

We thought it would be interesting to build transportation that has no friction, because it floats on a cushion of air, and goes really fast. We got the idea for the hovercraft from a book called “How Things Work.” There was a cut away section of the inner workings of a hovercraft, and we decided to figure out how to build a working model based on the picture in the book. The best part of collaborating on this project was working together and using power tools. Truthfully, nothing worked at first. We needed to adjust the weight of the craft and the skirt didn’t seal properly. Then we had to change the height of the fan and make a cage for the fan since we realized the blade could cut off our fingers. The hardest part, by far, was getting the weight down. After the STEM Fest, Henry is planning on building a full scale wooden boat that will broaden his woodworking and CAD skills. William will attend a technology camp this summer, and he has plans to land the first Lego mini figure on the Moon with a model rocket.

Understanding how Enzymes Work

At the Regeneron Exhibit, student Nicole Weyne made and measured glucose (using a glucose test strip) for milk by adding the enzyme lactase. About 200 kids stopped by the hands-on exhibit run by Regeneron volunteers, who are also New Castle residents. Lori Gowen Morton Photo.
At the Regeneron Exhibit, student Nicole Weyne made and measured glucose (using a glucose test strip) for milk by
adding the enzyme lactase. About 200 kids stopped by the hands-on exhibit run by Regeneron volunteers, who are
also New Castle residents. Lori Gowen Morton Photo.