Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama junior Reid Akana won a second-place Grand Award at the 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix on May 17. The competition featured more than 1,500 students from more than 70 countries.
Akana won $1,500 in the Plant Science category for his project, "Isolation of Leukemia-Specific Cytotoxic Compounds from Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)."
Earning honorable mention were a Waipahu High School team of Charlyn Castro Manuyag and Fely Marie Gregorio Magaoay for their project, "The Effects of Temperature on the Index of Refraction of Water."
Twenty Hawaii high school students competed in the weeklong event for students in grades 9 through 12. They advanced from the more than 4,200 Hawaii students who participate in the Hawaii State Science & Engineering Fair.
Other awards:
» Rachel Armstrong, a teacher at Hale Kula Elementary School at Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa, is among 20 teachers nationwide who will be honored by the International Society for Technology in Education in San Antonio on June 23-26.
Armstrong is being honored as an emerging leader by the ISTE. The award was announced Monday.
"The 2013 ISTE award honorees are living examples of the how educators are, right now, using thought leadership, advocacy and innovation to leverage technology to transform learning and teaching," said Brian Lewis, ISTE chief executive officer.
» The Honolulu Board of Water Supply last week announced winners of its 2013 Water Conservation Week Poster and Poetry Contests.
"These students are helping to set the groundwork for future generations by conveying the importance of conservation through their fine works of art and poetry," Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.
Winning first place in the poster contest were Kiyana Smith-Soares (kindergarten division), Charles Seagle (grades 1-2), William Rodrigues III (grades 3-4) and Alema Lowe (grades 5-6).
Poetry contest winners were Alyssa Lo (grades 7-8), Maddison Matthews (grades 9-10) and Rachael Hubbard (grades 11-12).
A full list of award winners is available at www.boardofwatersupply.com.
» A math and science teacher at a Hawaii island school is the recipient of the 2013 Space Foundation Lucy Enos Memorial Scholarship.
Robert A. Zellner says he will use the scholarship to help his students at Kanu o ka Aina New Century Charter School in Waimea understand weather patterns. He plans to travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., this summer to attend the Space Foundation’s teacher professional development course on meteorology and space weather.
The scholarship was established in 2005 and funded by Space Foundation Chief Executive Elliot Holokauahi Pulham and his wife, Cynthia. It honors Pulham’s grandmother who was born in Hawaii in 1868, and is available to educators of Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian descent or those who teach children of Hawaiian ancestry.
» Jonathan Whitney and Zachary Bergeron received the top awards from the ARCS Foundation Honolulu at an awards dinner May 6. Each won $6,000.
They were among 12 UH-Manoa graduate students recognized by the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation, which gives grants to outstanding students in science, engineering and medical research.
Whitney was named Scholar of the Year for Scientific Merit. He is studying the arc eye hawkfish to describe a different type of evolutionary process for speciation on coral reefs. He also received the ARCS Foundation’s Maybelle Roth Award in Conservation Biology.
Bergeron was named Scholar of the Year for Potential Societal Benefit. He is exploring peptide toxins for their potential for controlling mollusk pests, like the snails that are vectors for rat lungworm parasite. He also received the ARCS Foundation’s Helen Jones Farrar Award in Tropical Agriculture.
Ten students earned $5,000 awards: Harus Jabran Zahid, Raphael Ritson-Williams, Todd Baumeister, Emily First, Jennifer Rayno, Jeremy Young, Aaron Tamura-Sato, Kelsey Roe, Julaine Ching and Patrick Stengel.
