Here are the three young scientists selected in the Discovery Channel’s “Young Scientist Challenge”:
From their website, about Nolan Kamitaki, aged 14, from Waiakea Intermediate School in Hawaii:
Nolan was selected as the grand prize winner from an elite group of forty of the top young scientists in the nation and won a $20,000 scholarship award. His skills of leadership, teamwork, scientific problem solving, critical thinking, and oral and written communication skills earned him the distinguished title of “America’s Top Young Scientist of the Year”. Nolan’s project was entitled: Arsenic in the Schools and the Students?
…and about Jacob Hurwitz, aged 14, from Robert Frost Middle School, Rockville, Maryland:
Jacob won second prize, a $10,000 scholarship, for his project Disumbocoblated (with partner Scott Yu) and his excellent performance during the DCYSC Finalist Week.
…and about Amy David, aged 15, from Pinedale Middle School Pinedale, Wyoming:
Amy won third prize, a $5,000 scholarship. Her project was entitled When the Dust Settles, Year 2: A Multivariate Study of the Patterns of Near and Far Dispersal of Windblown Particulate Matter (with partner Jayne Thompson).
Congratulations!
You can read more about the winners, the challenge, and the other participants on the website. The photo on the right (click for larger) is a shot from the 40 participants’ visit to some schools in the DC area. Photo galleries here. There’s also an Associated Press article on Yahoo News about Nolan Kamitaki.
There are also lots of Special Prize Winners. There’s a link here.
-cvj
Thanks Mackensie!! Good luck with future projects, and well done!!
-cvj
hey I’m Mackensie and I just found this site…I was also a competitor in this competition. It was an amazing experience and wish I could go back. I appreciate all the support you have given to the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge! All of the projects there were amazing. Jacob was on my team and he actually is so good at memorization he knew 120 digits of pi(and could recite them in less then 30 seconds). I can not help you with his title since I myself wsa confused on how his project was put together. Thank you again. Best wishes. Mackensie
Thanks Aaron! Tell us about your project. What was it?
-cvj
Hay I’m Aaron Burrows and I was a competitor in this competition and have to say it was the best experience of a life time, and I encourage all who are interested to try science fair out and see were it takes you.
Thanks Anonymous!
-cvj
There is a short description of the projects here.
Additionally, I believe that “Disumbocoblated” is a permuted version of the word “Discombobulated.” See the project description for details why.
I’m inclined to give Jacob Hurwitz a prize for linguistic playfulness: “Disumbocoblated” is a little tongue-twisting marvel. Or else it’s a typo for “Discombobulated.”
Never mind, was looking in the wrong place.. go to your special prize winners link and click on their names….
I couldn’t find information on their web site about the actual science they did, other than the titles of their projects. I wish they’d post something about that, at least an abstract or something. Or is it in there somewhere and I missed it?