Students earn top awards at Rhode Island Science and Engineering

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St. Mary Academy - Bay View students in middle and upper school participated in the Rhode Island Science and Engineering Fair on March 21 - 22 at the CCRI - Knight Campus. Six students were award First Grants; nine earned Second Grants; and, two earned Third Grants. Junior Mackenzie DeFaria (Pawtucket, RI) was one of the First Grant award winners, a finalist for Best in Fair, and a special award winner.

Lily Gucfa (Rehoboth, MA), grade eight, was a First Grant winner as well, and she also qualified to apply for the Broadcom Masters Competition. Bay View Upper School students participate in RISEF of their own volition, as an independent research project. According to Janell Johnson, Ph.D., upper school science teacher, “these projects took months to complete and required an immeasurable amount of intellectual brainstorming and problem solving.” Students who wish to be considered for Bay View’s Chapter of the Excalibur National Honor Society for Excellence in Science are required to have completed a science fair project for RISEF. All eighth grade middle school students participate in the Bay View science fair. Only the top projects, as judged by a panel of Bay View Upper School faculty, are selected to progress to RISEF.