Tulane invited students from sixth to 12th year of local intermediate and secondary schools of New Orleans to participate in the annual 69th annual New Orleans Sciences and Engineering Fair. This event, which lasted from February 17 to 24, invited students to ask questions, to train hypotheses, to perform experiences and to present their results.
Student projects are classified in one of 15 different categories. Junior and seniors divisions have 15 categories, most of the categories overlapping between junior and senior divisions. The winners of these divisions can be found here.
Gnosef is sponsored by Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation And Tulane University School of Science and Engineering, among others.
The subjects of the project varied considerably, from the animal sciences and plants to biomedical engineering, and the students were impatient to show their work.
Dimitrios Fronistas, a college student at the Holy Cross school, executed a robotics project that required the use of his own 3D printer and many trials and errors.
“I made a prosthetic hand printed in 3D, and I wanted to make a perpetual movement, but it violated certain laws of physics,” said Fronistas. “It was the first time that I have been having been having any type of printed circuit … I learned with a click code and to slip, but never with a typed code.”
Tangel Castellon is a seventh year science teacher at Ben Franklin Middle School who says that the mentoring of his students was a gratifying experience.
“My students were very determined. They show great leadership and great perseverance, ”said Castellon. “They are at an age when they can be innovative, creative, find real world solutions to things that occur, then go to high school and have the same experience.”
Students in the junior division, who include sixth to the eighth year, can add their projects or create new ones when they join the senior division, which includes the ninth to the 12th year. From Gnosef, 60 students are selected to go to the Louisiana State Science and Engineering Fair, and four are selected to go directly to the International Science and Engineering Fair, whatever they place at the level of the State.
Michelle Sanchez, principal professor of practice at Tulane, works as director of the Center for K-12 Stem Education, who puts Gnosef. It has been involved with Gnosef for 13 years and has been the only director of the fair since the last eight. His work is all year round and involves much more than the organization of the annual fair.
“We are doing teacher workshops in summer and in the fall where I write subsidies to obtain teachers’ allowances, so the time (from the teacher) is paid when they come to these workshops,” said Sanchez.
Graduated and undergraduate students of Tulane also help to manage the fair. More specifically, Sanchez teaches learning to two services courseWho help direct the fair, undergraduate students acting even as judges for college events.
“”Students have an impact on these young students sometimes even more than other judges, because they are considered to be close to age and having just lived the same life experiences, including participation in poster sessions. They are considered to be almost peers and young students tend to be more comfortable asking questions, “said Sanchez.
The main objective of Sanchez for the future of Gnosef is an increased accent on the fierce work of the teacher.
“The number one objective for me is … teachers and (promoting) the appreciation for the time they spend on this subject,” said Sanchez. “It was a priority in terms of funding for them.”
Hridesh Rajan, the dean of the School of Science and Engineering, helped to present the prices of the fair, alongside the dean of the University of Loyola of the School of Arts and Liberal Sciences.
“I am delighted with students who will participate in the (ISEF) and the Louisiana Science and Engineering Fair. It is a great honor to be selected to participate in these competitive national and international events, ”said Rajan in a statement.
Gnosef saw hundreds of talented students showing their work, and Sanchez says that the event was a success. During the event, 171 awards were awarded to 300 participating students, and GNOSEF gives $ 60,000 in prices, grants and scholarships to winners, teachers and schools.
“Seeing children as excited as they are when they earn prices are worth it,” said Sanchez. “It shows that everyone can be a winner in one direction or another.”