Conference will showcase high school science projects

Science students throughout Eastern Washington will have an opportunity to present research projects to a panel of judges next month to gain experience and maybe win a scholarship.

The second annual Inland Northwest High School Science Symposium will be Feb. 22 at the Riverpoint campus of Eastern Washington University and Washington State University.

Tom Stralser, a biology teacher at Cheney High School, modeled the symposium after one held in Alaska every year.

He held the symposium last April, but since he is also a track coach at Cheney, he decided to hold it in February this year to avoid time conflicts.

During that first year, Stralser approached Eastern Washington University for scholarships for the contest where students have 12 minutes to present a research project to judges and three minutes to answer questions.

With the EWU scholarship in hand, finding scholarships from Gonzaga University, Washington State University and Whitworth University wasn’t a problem.

The symposium awarded $50,000 to students last year and this year expects to award $30,000. This year, Gonzaga University isn’t participating, but the University of Idaho is kicking in funds.

The winner will get a scholarship from the school of his or her choice. The second-place winner will choose from what’s left until all scholarships are gone.

Last year’s symposium was attended by 18 students from Odessa, Riverside and North Central high schools.

The projects can be very involved. Stralser provides the students with a set of 12 steps to complete a successful project, which includes “a literature review to gather background information on your project” or “design your experimental method.”

Stralser said that some students could spend an afternoon on a research project, others a month and a half. One student he knows is returning this year will present findings on a project he presented last year, but with another year of research.

“This is quite a powerful program,” Stralser said.

Last year’s winner was Odessa High’s Paula Mendoza, whose research project was titled “The Effect of Age on the Rate of Language Acquisition.” She taught Esperanto for 15 minutes a day to first-, fifth- and ninth-grade students, then tested the students and compared the scores. Once she made her conclusions, she gave Strasler a summary of her work. Stralser hopes that the symposium will help science students gain research experience they can apply in college. Not only will the students have research experience, but they’ll also gain exposure to the science programs of the colleges involved. The students will also have their abstracts published – many for the first time – in a book containing all of the research projects.

“They just want good students,” Stralser said of the schools.

Students wishing to participate in the symposium should submit a typed, single-spaced abstract limited to 200 words, and include a bibliography citing three sources of literature.

The deadline to register is Feb. 8.