Ursinus hosts science competition
COLLEGEVILLE >> Some of Montgomery County’s budding young scientists got the chance to show off their research Wednesday.
High school and middle school students from school districts all over Montgomery County presented their findings on a variety of research topics to scientific professionals in the area. Their presentations were part of the 60th Montgomery County Science Research Competition in which students compete to win money, laptops and a chance at more competitions.
“I think the goal is not to win prizes,” said Philip Rittenhouse, director of the Montgomery County Science Research Competition and a biology teacher at Germantown Academy. “The goal is to do science and we have about 500 students participating. This is Montgomery County’s 60th year doing it and it just seems to be getting bigger every year.”
To take part in the competition, students representing 34 Montgomery County schools had to present a tri-fold display, log book and research report as well as give a brief explanation of their projects and answer questions from judges. About 100 judges were in attendance Wednesday and they included representatives from local
pharmaceutical companies as well as corporations such as Merck and Dow Chemical.
“There are about 13 categories, everything from microbiology to zoology to botany to environmental science. Almost anything they would do in science would fall into one of those categories,” said Rittenhouse.
And there were certainly a wide range of topics. While some projects had to do with the
effect of pH on lead testing, others explored the future of food by detailing the effects of cryogenically freezing certain proteins.
“I think the quality of projects gets better every year. They look better, I think what the kids are thinking about in science gets better and they’re actually doing a lot of stuff that’s over my head,” said Rittenhouse. “What’s over my head is the equipment they’re
designing. Some guy designed his own drone, for instance, which is stunningly cool. But that’s way out of my league as a biology teacher.”
High school students presented their findings to judges for the first half of the day Wednesday, followed by middle school students.
In addition to various monetary awards and other prizes, two middle school students and three high school students will be selected to compete in April at the Delaware Valley Science Fair. There, they will compete against students from schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware for $3 million in scholarships and awards. The winners of that fair then go on to the International Fair.
The award ceremony for Wednesday’s competition will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Friday March 10 at the Bomberger Auditorium at Ursinus College.