Baldwin Students Place at County Science Research Competition

On March 14, Jasmine Syed, a junior at The Baldwin School, and her sister Sara Syed, an eighth grader at Baldwin, participated in the Montgomery County Science Research Competition (MCSRC).  

Jasmine presented the research that she did last summer at the University of Pennsylvania.  Her project was titled “Comparing Mutagenesis by Diesel and Bio Diesel,” which tested the carcinogenicity of Bio Diesel and Diesel Fuel by using the Ames Test.  

Her research was well received and she won a Second Place award in her category (Environmental).  In addition she got a Special Award - an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Student Science Research from The Society of Women Engineers.  

Sara presented an independent project of a computer game that she created. Her project was titled “Hands Only CPR Game: Save a Life One Beat at a Time,” and it was a game to teach people about Hands Only CPR and to teach the beat to it. 

She combined her love of science and computer programming to create this educational game. She also included music as part of the game because gaming and music helps people learn better. 

She competed in Division E (all middle school, grades 6 - 8) in the Computer Science category. She was awarded Third Place. In addition, she was given a Special Award - the only 1st place award for Excellence in Student Science Research from The Society of Women Engineers. This means that out of all the girls’ projects at the middle school fair (there were about 350 boys and girls participating in the middle school division), her project was awarded first place among the girls projects. 

Sara spent a lot of time outside school on this project - designing and programming the game, writing a research paper, working on her display board, and working on her oral presentation.  

Both Jasmine and Sara qualified to move on to the Delaware Valley Science Fair (DVSF) to be held April 1-2 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA. Top finalists from the regional fairs held in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern NJ, and Delaware are chosen to move on to DVSF.