Strong Science Program at Ferrahian Secures Wins at Science Fair

asbarez
Friday, June 3rd, 2011

A scene from the Ferrahian Science Fair

ENCINO – Science Fair is a well established school-wide extracurricular
activity here at Holy Martyrs Marie Cabayan Elementary and Ferrahian
High School. All middle school and high school students who are
enrolled in a science class participate in this highly educational and
rewarding extracurricular activity.

This year Ferrahian High School’s Science Fair was held on Friday,
March 10, 2011. The project boards were displayed in the school’s
gymnasium and were judged by engineers and scientists from the
Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America (AESA), and other
volunteers. The judges had to choose the winning projects from amongst
43 middle school and 70 high school science projects. Winners were
chosen from each grade level, in addition to, an overall winner from
middle school and high school levels.

Students with winning projects had an opportunity to participate in
the Armenian Science Olympiad sponsored by the AESA on April 10, 2011
and later in the Los Angeles County Science Fair on April 15, 2011 and
further down the line in statewide competition. The following
summarizes the exceptional record of our school:

Armenian Science Olympiad: Six winners out of sixteen participants
Los Angeles County Science Fair: Eight winners out of ten participants
Los Angeles County Science Fair: Two selected projects from the County
Fair participants.
These gains are a reflection of the school’s solid science program.
The Science curriculum at Ferrahian besides the California State
Standards includes two remedial courses each on 9th and 10th grade
levels and four honor courses: AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics
and AP Environmental Science. Thus, the school reaches out to all
students on different academic performance levels.

The school participated in the Armenian Science Olympiad by entering
16 high school and middle school projects. Our students had a number
of wins as follows:

12th grade individual project – Maretta Oganesyan second place;
12th grade group project Anush Ginosyan and Shaunt Kevork – 2nd place;
10th grade group project Karina Khadarian and Varak Armoudikian
-Honorable mention;
10th grade group project Shaunt Anserelian, Raffi Kurbessoian, Anto
Shahmelikian – Honorable mention;
10th grade group project Shushan Ginosyan and Katrine Minassian –
Honorable mention;
6th grade individual project Renee Melkonian- Honorable mention.
Ferrahian students also participated at the Los Angeles County Science
Fair where over 850 projects representing 1000 students were
registered to participate. Our school entered ten projects and eight
of those were winning projects and two were selected to compete at the
California State Science Fair. The following is a list of this year’s
LA County winning projects:

3rd place winner 12th grade AP Environmental Science student Maretta
Oganesyan project titled: `Removing lead ions from water using
magnetic particles.’ – Project selected to compete at the California
State Science Fair.
Honorable mention winners, 12th grade AP Physics students Anush
Ginosyan and Shaunt Kevork project titled: `Removing nitrates from
water using a redox reaction.’ – Project selected to compete at the
California State Science Fair.

Honorable mention winners 12th grade AP Physics students Natalie
Shahbol and Nyrie Dikijian project titled: `Floating animals, oil, and
dispersants … Oh My`

Two Special Awards winner 11th grade AP Chemistry student Arev
Hovsepian project titled: `Combating acid rain in soil.’

Honorable mention winners 10th grade AP Biology students Shushan
Ginosyan and Katrine Minassian project titled:’Does Grandma’s soup
kill E. Coli?’
Honorable mention winner 10th grade AP Biology student Garni Terterian
project titled:’ Measuring the specific heat of water and other
liquids using a homemade calorimeter with resistive wire heating.’
Honorable mention winners 7th grade Vagarshak Avetisyan and Aren
Kurkjian project titled:’Effect of light, salt, temperature, and
sodium bicarbonate on water plant oxygen levels.’
Honorable mention winners 6th grade Shant Arslanian and Nareg
Kuyumjian project titled:’Biomass energy.’
The purpose of the Science Fair is twofold. Its primary objective is
to teach the students how to plan, design, execute, and complete a
science project with limited assistance from teachers and parents, and
secondarily to provide an opportunity for students to apply and to
bring to life the scientific method which is much discussed in their
science classes. Additionally, the Science Fair program embodies
several of our school’s Expected School-wide Learning Results; briefly
stated, to graduate students who are critical thinkers and problem
solvers, to graduate students who are life-long learners, to graduate
students who are effective communicators and responsible citizens.

From: A. Papazian