Taking place in Lakeland, Fla., 15 middle and high school students competed in the State Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF) April 2-5. Heritage was the largest delegation, with 15 of the 40 students traveling with Broward being from Heritage. The science researchers were rewarded for their hard work, with all students from Heritage who qualified for the state fair placing in the top six.
Highlights of the fair included awards, where four Broward county students placed first place in their category, two of them from Heritage.
In addition to category first place awards, the state awards eight Grand Awards, which are given to the top eight students in the entire fair of over 1,000 students. Emma Colarte Delgado was awarded one of these “Best-in-Fair” awards, which comes with a $1,000 cash prize. These Top 8 students are able to qualify for the International Fair automatically, representing the State Level instead of the county level. This allows five students from Broward to go to internationals instead of the standard three, since two students, one from Heritage and one from Pinecrest, will be traveling with the state.
Juniors Emma Colarte Delgado and Calvin Mathew, who won first, will go to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) to compete with their projects in May. The week-long fair will be held in Los Angeles. Mathew and Delgado competed in ISEF last year as well, winning first place at the international level.
Middle School:
Ella Delgado, 6 – 6th (Recognition), Environmental Engineering
Beatrice Assano, 6 – 5th place (Honorable Mention), Earth and Environmental Sciences
Sophia Fatil-Patel, 7 – 4th place, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Scarlette Asselta, 6 – 3rd place, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Ivan Kalaskhovy, 8 – 2nd place, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Colton Poppe, 6 – 2nd place, Earth and Environmental Sciences
High School:
Third place:
Noah-Duro Andre, 10 – Microbiology
Anagha Iyer, 10 – Microbiology
Akshay Kumar, 11 – Behavioral Sciences
Hanna Zhang, 11 – Biomedical and Health Science
Second Place:
Anik Bora, 11- Plant Sciences
Iris Fan, 11 – Chemistry
Kamilat Mustapha, 11 – Chemistry
Lorenzo Pulmano, 12 – Intelligent and Machine Systems
First Place:
Emma Colarte Delgado, 11 – Cellular/Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Calvin Mathew, 11 – Engineering
Five Heritage Students also received special awards. These included:
Stockholm Junior Water Prize: Anagha Iyer, 10
$96,000 Florida Institute of Technology Scholarship: Emma Colarte Delgado, 11, Akshay Kumar, 11
$50 Clay County Science Cash Prize: Ella Colarte Delgado, 6
$150 gift card from Florida Society of Environmental Analysis: Beatrice Assano, 6
NASA Earth System Science Award: Colton Poppe, 6
From left to right: junior Hanna Zhang (3rd), sophomore Anagha Iyer (3rd), junior Kamilat Mustapha (2nd), junior Emma Colarte Delgado (1st), junior Calvin Mathew (1st), junior Iris Fan (2nd), junior Akshay Kumar (3rd) and senior Lorenzo Pulmano (2nd) smile after bringing their trophies to school for a state science fair party. (Photo/Juliana Caulkins)
Both middle and high school students display their awards following their state sweep. In this photo, from left to right, seventh grader Sophia Fatil-Patel (4th), sixth grader Ella Colarte Delgado (6th), sixth grader Beatrice Assano (5th), sixth grader Scarlette Asselta (3rd) and sixth grader Colton Poppe (2nd) display their awards. (Photo/Juliana Caulkins)
Emma Colarte Delgado stands next to the trophy awarded to her. The Grand Award came with not only a $1000 cash prize, but also a traveling trophy to display in the school. It is currently sitting in the admissions office. (Photo/Juliana Caulkins)
Once students’ names were called, they were able to go onstage to receive their award. “Being able to be recognized with being able to go on stage was great,” sixth grader Ella Delgado said. “I loved being able to go backstage and have my photo taken too.”
In addition to competing, the Broward County delegation went to tour Florida Polytechnic University together. This was their field trip activity before the awards ceremony and included a campus tour and free lunch. “It was a fun and calming afternoon,” sophomore Anagha Iyer said. “We were able to make new friends with students from different schools too.”
