Shoreham-Wading River students participate in science fair

Several students in Shoreham-Wading River High School’s science research class participated in the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, which is the regional competition that leads to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. 

Third-and fourth-year research students presented the work they completed in the last year to a panel of three judges, and received feedback and questions from each on their research. 

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the students to gain experience in speaking about their work, as well as being a culmination of their yearlong project, and a chance to gain an even deeper understanding of the science behind their experiments from professionals in the field,” science research teacher Dana Schaefer said.

Derek Blanco presented his work on the chemical analysis of sediment from the Shoreham-Wading River campus pond using tender X-ray spectroscopy. Dongkai Zhang presented his project looking at fatty acid production in the plant Camelina sativa. Julianna O’Neill and Katelyn Schaefer shared their examination of the most prevalent microplastics found in sediment from the Peconic Estuary and Alexandra Seletskaya shared the work she did examining the chemical composition of a carbonaceous chondrite meteor.

Blanco and Seletskaya are in the process of preparing manuscripts for publication for each of their projects, which will be submitted for publication prior to the end of the school year.