Putnam Valley Science Research Excels at local science research

On Saturday March 17th, Sleep Hollow High School hosted over 600 students
from 32 area high schools competing in the Westchester Science and
Engineering Fair (WESEF) competition. Competition participants spend months
completing original research in one of 16 designated categories and then
present their research to local experts in their field. Each student is
graded on their research, presentation and poster construction. Students
are awarded prizes based on specific aspects of their research and overall
place.
Putnam Valley High School established their science research program four
years ago under the guidance of Mr. Jerry Zupan. The program has quickly
grown from five students 3 years ago to 32 students this year. "The course
is unique in that it allows the students to pick a topic to research, and
they are researching at a graduate level. Some students are in the process
of being published before they are able to vote," says Zupan. Student
researchers are exploring a variety of categories including cyberbullying,
finding habitable planets, virtual reality, and stem cell research.
Putnam Valley had 11 juniors and seniors competing at WESEF and nine
received recognition for their research.
Kaitlin Cohen won the US Metric Association Award with her partner Natalie
Scanlon of Mahopac High School for their project on stem cell attachment; Dora
Rippon won the Think STEAM award for her research on determining habitable
planets' minimal masses. Olivia Schmidt's research on the quorem sensing in
Tuberculosis won 4th place overall in microbiology. Conor van Riper, Erin
Pedersen, and the team of Paige Lee and Salvatore Pepe (Yorktown High
School) each won 3rd place in the behavior category. Hayley Lewis won the
Stockholm Junior Water Award and 2nd overall in environmental for her work
on caffeine's effect on macro-invertebrates. Jasper Katzban's research on
the use of virtual reality in elderly living facilities won him both the
Intel Excellence in Computer Science award and 1st overall in the Computer
Science.
PVHS junior Sarah Broas was recognized as the top female competitor at
WESEF and was awarded one of the 12 grand prizes for her research titled
"Development of Decellularized Peppermint Leaf Biomimetic Scaffolds for
Cardiac Tissue Engineering." Sarah's research involves using peppermint
leaves as a scaffold for growing a human heart from stem cells. Under the
guidance of her mentor Dr. Banerjee of Fordham University, Sarah was able
to experience engineering research firsthand on the institution's Bronx
campus. Sarah has spent countless hours with Dr. Banerjee in her lab, as
well as on the phone discussing the application of their work, reviewing
supporting articles, and critiquing their results.
Winning one of the grand prizes means that Sarah (along with 11 other area
individuals and 2 team projects) will compete this May in the International
Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Pittsburgh, PA. She will be
competing against over 1,100 high school students from over 70 different
countries.

1st Picture: Members of Putnam Valley Science Research
Back Row: Olivia Schmidt, Erin Pedersen, Conor van Riper, Meredith Conlin,
Dora Rippon, Walter Wacaser, Kaitlin Cohen, Sarah Broas
Front row: Paige Lee, Jasper Katzban, Hayley Lewis
2nd picture: Teacher Mr. Jerry Zupan with WESEF grand prize winner SarahBroas.

3rd Pictuer: Center: Sarah Broas after winning a grand prize at WESEF, a trip to the
international ISEF competition