Bellmore-Merrick students place at science, engineering fair

On March 5, teams from the Bellmore-Merrick’s Grand Avenue Middle School Science Research Program traveled to the Crest Hollow Country Club to compete in the Long Island Science & Engineering Fair Middle School Fair.

At the competition, the team of Anna Kaplun, Mia Tascarella and Milena Chomicz-Grabowska took home first place with their project, “Will the addition of biostimulants such as Stress RX or Ascophyllium nodosum result in the improved growth of Lactuca sativa as compared to a traditional fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro?”

The team of Patrick Mulvey and Aidan Cheung took third place for their project, “How will a decrease in the pH level of ocean water affect the ability of Uca rapax , fiddler crabs, to find food using olfaction?”

The team of Isabel Ziegler and Anna Schellberg also took third place for their project, “How Will Artificial vs. Natural Sweeteners Affect the Mass, the Gender and Population Size of Drosophila melanogaster?”

“By placing first, Kaplun, Tascarella and Chomicz-Grabowska have now been nominated to take part in the inaugural Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, previously the Broadcom Masters, a program of the Society for Science, to be held in Washington, D.C. later this year,” explained Tami Cruz, their science teacher. “Only students who are named in the top 10 percent of an affiliated science fair are eligible to participate in Thermo Fisher JIC.”