UAF to Host High School Science Symposium

Submitted by Michael Wright
Phone: (907) 474-7581
02/27/03

Future scientists from high schools around the state will converge on the University of Alaska Fairbanks March 8 - 9, 2003 as part of the 14th annual Alaska Statewide High School Science Symposium. This year, 45 high school students in grades 9 - 12 are scheduled to present results of their experiments and research.

"Students conduct research and present their results in a scientific setting and work with scientists in fields that interest them," said program director Gary Laursen, UAF professor and senior research scientist, Institute of Arctic Biology.

Students will present oral and written summaries of their projects, which are reviewed by separate panels of judges in one of seven categories. From a group of 14 finalists, five young Alaskans will be selected to represent the state at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. The top state presenter also receives a $4,000 scholarship and competes nationally for other scholarship money. Four more student finalists also get to attend the national meeting and the top seven Alaskan participants receive a one-year tuition scholarship to UAF.

Past participants have been published in scientific journals, gone on for advanced science degrees and one has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. The program is affiliated with the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.

CONTACT: Gary Laursen, ASHSSS Director at (907) 474-6295 or e-mail: ffgal@uaf.edu.