Six Roslyn High School students competed in the New York State Science Congress on Sunday, June 8.
The students qualified through their standout performance at the Long Island Science Congress, held at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on April 7. There, they presented research conducted as part of the school’s Introduction to Research class, the entry point into Roslyn’s Research Program.
Zara Cooper, Anne Goldstein and Abigail Sonoda conducted an experiment on how spelling and grammatical errors in an email affect perceptions of the student author.
“With the growing concern that students’ skill in these areas is declining, this is a timely and important issue to investigate,” said Allyson Weseley, who oversees the district’s Research Program and mentored the team.
The group found that while spelling errors negatively influenced perceptions of the author, grammatical errors did not.
Anannya Anand, Navya Gupta and Vanessa Theodos studied the ability of dandelion extract to inhibit bacterial growth. They found that the root of the plant was effective in limiting the spread of a harmless strain of E. coli, suggesting it may have a similar effect on pathogenic strains.
Science teacher Sunita Gupta supported the group’s lab work, and Andrea Pearlman assisted both teams in preparing for competitions. The dandelion extract project received an Honor Award.
