Coastal-Georgetown AAUW gives six awards at Sussex County Science Fair

The Coastal-Georgetown Branch of the American Association of University Women was one of several organizations that presented special awards to Sussex County middle and high school students who participated in the March 4 Sussex County Science Fair at the Biden Center in Lewes.

AAUW selected six students to honor for their projects. The two middle school students who received awards were Kierstin Blatzheim from Sussex Academy of Arts and Sciences for her project, “Breaking It Down: Compost Style,” and Alvina AmanKwaa-Africa from Mariner Middle School for her work, “Does Gender Affect Cone Cells?" Mikayla Ockels, a ninth-grade student from Sussex Central High School, received an award for her project, “Black Gold.” Tenth-grader Kaitlin Philcox from Cape Henlopen High School was selected for her engineering project, “Shape Airflow Dynamics.”

Will McCabe, a junior from Indian River High School,  received an award for his environmental science project, “Grey for Green: The Grey Water Option,” and Bansri Patel, a Sussex Technical High School junior, was awarded for her microbiology project, “Effects of BPA & BPS in C elegans.”

Marty Johnson, a member of the Coastal-Georgetown Branch, presented each recipient with a certificate and a monetary award given in the name of Louise Eiremann Dale, a charter member and past president of the Coastal-Georgetown AAUW branch. This was Coastal-Georgetown AAUW’s 10th year participating in the science fair. The AAUW judges were Betsy Baumeister, Kathleen Thompson, Marylou Dodge, Brenda Snyder, Rose Laird, Pat Powell and Marty Johnson. Susan Chin was the AAUW representative for the Sussex judges. AAUW judges were extremely pleased with this year’s projects and the students’ depth and understanding of their work.

AAUW promotes equity for all women and girls through education, research, philanthropy and advocacy. For more information about AAUW go to www.aauwdelaware.org or www.aauw.org.