Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District has announced that four John F. Kennedy High School students were named 2011 Intel Talent Search semifinalists: Adam Getzler, Jonathan Abraham Goldman, Alex Kusher and Jonathan Aaron Goldman.
“The entire district is delighted with these outstanding results. We congratulate the students, the teachers and their mentors,” stated Superintendent of the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District, Gerard Dempsey.
The Intel Science Talent Search (Intel International Science and Engineering Fair) is the nation’s most prestigious pre-college science competition. Alumni of STS have made extraordinary contributions to science and hold more than 100 of the world’s most coveted science and math honors, including seven Nobel Prizes and four National Medals of Science. The Intel STS recognizes 300 students and their schools as Semifinalists each year – pulling 1744 applicants in 2011 – to compete for the $1.25 million in awards. “This is a true to testament to all of their hard work paying off,” added John F. Kennedy High School Principal James Murray.
For his project, Adam Getzler conducted his research this summer as part of the High School Honors Science Math and Engineering Program (HSHSP) at Michigan State University. His work is titled “The Effect of Boron Deficiency on Gene Expression and Boron Compartmentalization in Beta Vulgaris Subspecies Sugarbeet.”
Jonathan Abraham Goldman worked under the mentorship of Dr. Yuefan Deng at State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook. His experiment is titled “A Novel Framework for Quasi-Dynamic Task Scheduling on Parallel Computers.”
Alex Kusher and Jonathon Aaron Goldman both worked under the direction of Ray Tesar, AP Psychology Teacher at John F. Kennedy High School. Alex Kusher’s work is titled “Combating Teacher Turnover through the Understanding of Teachers’ Perceptions of Standardized Testing.” Jonathan Aaron Goldman’s research project is titled “Evidence for Link between Native Reading Language and Internal/External Search Processes.”
AP Psychology teacher Ray Tesar explained, “After working with Jon and Alex over the last year and a half, I am very proud of all of their hard work and dedication. These young men conducted all of their research in our school lab and it was impressive to see the level of findings.” Research Teacher Coordinator MaryLou O’Donnell said, “The entire Plainview-Old Bethpage community helped to create this amazing achievement for these young men. Each student’s research was exceptional in its own unique way. The unifying factor is that each of them had a work ethic that exceeded expectation.”
“It has been wonderful to see these young men grow over the years,” stated Joyce Thornton Barry, Chairperson of Science, Research and Technology K-12 for Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District. “They have each invested so much time and energy into their projects. While each semifinalist has a very different project, they are all connected by their desire to learn and explore the unknown. That is what our program is all about. The Plainview-Old Bethpage Independent Research program emphasizes the experience, we are very fortunate to be able to help our students pursue research opportunities in their individual areas of interest.”
Of the semifinalists, 40 finalists will be invited to Washington D.C. in March to participate in final judging, display their work to the public, meet with notable scientists, and compete for the top award of $100,000.
