High Schooler Is Awarded $100,000 For Research

wired_LAIN writes "A teenager from Oklahoma was awarded $100,000 in the Intel Science Talent Search competition for building an inexpensive and accurate spectrograph that can identify the specific characteristics of different kinds of molecules. While normal spectrographs can cost between $20,000 and $100,000 to build, her spectrograph cost less than $500. The 40 finalists' projects were judged by a panel of 12 scientists, all well established in their respective fields. Among the judges were Vera Rubin, who proved Dark Matter, and Andrew Yeager, one of the pioneers of stem cell research."

Re:Read the article...

[keepingmyheaddown]

No sir, if you had RT REAL FA http://www.sciserv.org/sts/66sts/winners.asp [sciserv.org] then you would know it cost $300.

Overview of her Project

[Somegeek]

From her biography on sciserv.org:

"Her Littrow spectrograph splits light, like a prism, and uses a camera to record the resulting Raman spectra - a specific vibrational fingerprint of the molecular compound being investigated. Using a laser as her light source, Mary tested several household objects and solvents and compared her results to published wave numbers. Despite the shortcomings of the inexpensive laser, she found she could make relatively accurate wavelength measurements with her homemade device."

Re:Okay can we see the project?

[quanminoan]

This link [sciserv.org] provides a little more information.

Re:Dollar dollars

[GundamFan]

They had an interview on NPR the other day (Wednesday or Thursday on All Things Considered if you wish to look up the podcast) with the winner, she said that she spent around $300 but with the parts that she already had (a digital camera for one) and a few donations she received the estimated total cost of such a device would be around $1000.

Re:Other winners

[indigest]

You will find that there is an interesting correlation every year between the Research Science Institute [mit.edu] participants and the Intel STS winners. RSI is a program that is run in cooperation with MIT where high school students spend their summer before senior year doing research with MIT professors. Intel has even noticed the connection and they have a page [intel.com] on it. Out of the list of top ten Intel STS winners, the following were at RSI in 2006:

Mary Masterman (1)
Dmitry Vaintrob (3)
Megan Blewett (7)

Pretty good for a program that only accepts 50 American students (IIRC). The usual suspects used to show up as Lucent Global Science Scholars as well, but that program was unfortunately ended in 2005.

In my experience, the key to high school and undergraduate research is a teacher/professor that pushes the student far beyond what he or she knows. A high school student just doesn't have enough experience to come up with truly groundbreaking research. However, amazing things can happen when the teacher/professor exposes the student to advanced concepts which their minds need to struggle to understand. The student will often approach the problem in a different way then the researchers in the field, which will sometimes lead to a new and unexpected result.

The main difficulty is that it can be really frustrating and demoralizing for a student to be in a place where they have to struggle to understand a concept. I think a lot of high schoolers and undergrads get discouraged when they have difficulty understanding a concept. Educators just need to keep that in mind and reassure students that the learning process is an important component of doing good research.

Re:"Awarded" or "Paid"?

[QuasiEvil]

As a former Westinghouse STS finalist (back in 1995, before it became the Intel STS), you get to keep all rights. The cash is just the prize for being top in the nation. It literally is just prize money, or at least was back then. I wouldn't think things have changed that much, as some of the research I was competing with had applications far more valuable than $100k. There's also a lot of other perks - academic offers and scholarships to all sorts of interesting institutions, trips, resume padding, etc.