Wheeling High School Students Receive Top Award for STEM

            Four Wheeling High School students recently competed at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science (IJAS) State Fair and all brought home gold medals. The competition, held this past weekend at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, attracted hundreds of middle and high school students from across the state.

            A science research competition for junior and senior high school students, the IJAS State Fair gives students an opportunity to communicate their research results and to promote discussion of their work with scientific colleagues.

Sophomore Zalman Faltushanskiy submitted one of 200 papers that qualified for the Paper Session and earned a Gold Medal for his work in Behavioral Science.

            Faltushanskiy and sophomore Irene Keselman each won a Gold Medal for their individual work on Behavioral Science in the Project Session. Over 1,000 projects qualified for state in this category. Both students are involved with the school’s Investigatory Design program, which is sponsored by staff members Barry Hanrahan, Oliver Smidt, and Tim McIntire.  

            Seniors Nick Rankin and Vinnie Battista also earned a Gold Medal for their collective work in Earth Science. They completed their research in the Intro to Nanotechnology class taught by Lisa Del Muro.

            The highest award in the competition, Best in Category, is given to two middle school and two high school projects in each category at state. Faltushanskiy and Battista/Rankin won the Best in Category award for their respective projects and received an award as well as a cash prize.

            Wheeling High School also was presented with a special award, The Dr. Lyell J Thomas Memorial Award, for supporting outstanding student research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.