SPRINGFIELD — Whereas a Pope Francis pupil from Russell gained the grand prize award on the Area IV Science Honest at Western New England College on March 10, Westfield Excessive Faculty college students additionally fared very nicely, with one first place award, one second place, and 6 third place winners.

The Sanofi Specialty Grand Prize Award went to Elizabeth Hanechak of Russell, a sophomore at Pope Francis Preparatory Faculty in Springfield. Hanechak’s biochemistry challenge, “The Deletion of a Disulfide Bridge by Web site-Director Mutagenesis to Adapt Cutinase to the Biodegradation of Polyethylene Terephthalate,” earned her a slot within the Worldwide Science and Engineering Honest at Dallas, Texas, in Could.

Placing her challenge in plain English, Hanechak defined that she was principally targeted on looking for a sensible answer to the plastic disposal downside. She mentioned recycling doesn’t actually work, as a result of lower than 4% of the 51 million tons of plastic within the U.S. will get recycled yearly. Incineration additionally doesn’t work, as it’s well-known that burning plastic releases poisonous chemical substances. Hanechak mentioned biodegradation makes use of naturally occurring microorganisms to degrade the plastic, however may be very sluggish and takes a very long time, making that answer additionally impractical.

“My analysis was making an attempt to enhance an enzyme proven to degrade plastic, to make it work quicker and extra effectively,” she mentioned, including that the experiment went fairly nicely, “past what I hoped for — my mutations degraded the samples 55% higher than [others]. One degraded a complete plastic pattern inside 24 hours.”

Hanechak mentioned since Pope Francis doesn’t have a highschool science truthful, she did the analysis on her personal, studying scientific journals for months earlier than arising with the thought for the analysis proposal. She labored with a microbiology professor at Westfield State College on the challenge as an unbiased analysis pupil, funded by her mom, she mentioned.

Hanechak mentioned Pope Francis has been very supportive, giving her entry to most scientific journals, and break day to go to the lab. They can even give her every week off to go to the Worldwide Science Honest in Dallas.

“Science is my all the pieces,” Hanechak mentioned. Relating to the plastic downside, she mentioned, “It’s actually scary to consider sooner or later, however it’s thrilling to see individuals engaged on it. It offers you new hope, that every one will not be misplaced.”

Incomes a primary place award in biology was Westfield Excessive Faculty junior Milana Camilleri with a reprise of her award-winning challenge from final yr’s science truthful on “Testing the Effectiveness of Superstar-Endorsed vs. Dermatologist-Authorized Facial Cleansers (Half 2).”

For Camilleri, exposing deceptive advertising and marketing was as vital as score the effectiveness of facial cleaners. Within the description of her challenge, she writes: “The advertising and marketing strategy of celebrity-endorsement is changing into extra outstanding in society, permitting for merchandise like facial cleansers to be bought at costs by customers, unaware of their value inflation or effectiveness. They imagine that utilizing these celebrity-endorsed merchandise will mirror their socially accepted and engaging options onto themselves. This experiment strives to match celebrity-endorsed and dermatologist-approved facial cleansers when eliminating Okay-12 E. coli. This information will get rid of the potential misinformation behind glorified facial merchandise whereas offering probably the most cost-efficient and strongest cleanser in opposition to zits micro organism (Propionibacteriumria).”

Camilleri gained a Nationwide Geographic “That’s Geography” award for her challenge ultimately yr’s science truthful, and continued to discover the identical subject this yr.

“I’ve all the time had an curiosity in math and biology, which sparked my curiosity in drugs,” mentioned Camilleri, who’s beginning to tour potential faculties and finalizing her listing based mostly on colleges with one of the best pre-med and “BS-MD” applications — tracks that lead straight into medical college from undergraduate lessons.

Camilleri mentioned a part of what drew her to this challenge was eager to discover a selected medical specialty, which might assist her select a examine and profession path inside drugs.

“The one I explored [last year] is dermatology based mostly,” she mentioned. On this yr’s continuation challenge, she included two new components — ingredient proportions, which she mentioned weren’t measurable because of the variation within the high 5 substances of the merchandise; and the unit value, or value per fluid ounce, to measure their price effectivity.

Final yr, Camilleri additionally participated within the regional and state contests, though she mentioned she didn’t go any additional within the state contest.

“I hope to do higher this yr,” she mentioned.

Different Westfield award winners included second place biology award winner Wunnyuriti Ziblim together with his challenge, “Maximizing Microbial Metabolism within the Rhizosphere to Generate Electrical Present.” Ziblim additionally gained a New England Department of the American Society for Microbiology Award.

Profitable third place have been the next Westfield Excessive Faculty college students:

Luke Bulan for “Inventing a Low cost and Comfy But Efficient Phototherapy Blanket for Infants.”

Teagan Chisholm-Godshalk for “Thriving Harvest with Thrifty Supplies: The Comparability of Solanum Iycopersicum Development Between On a regular basis Rising and Hydroponic Rising.”

John Doyle for “Utilizing Moveable Photo voltaic Power to Energy Digital Units in Distant Places.”

Sydney Drugan for “Does the Presence and Focus of Volcanic Ash in Soil Have an effect on Plant Development?”

Ciara Johnson-Corwin for “Discovering Which Worm Biodegrades Polystyrene Sooner.”

Nora Scott and Alexis Masciadrelli for “How Do Disinfectants Work In opposition to Germs/Micro organism/Viruses?”

Doyle additionally gained a Westfield Fuel & Electrical Energy Plus Award. The entire award winners certified to compete within the state science truthful on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how on Could 6.