Fifth Crystallization Competition
The Fifth Crystallization Competition was held on June 8, 2019 at the UPRM. This project is a collaboration between the Science on Wheels Educational Center (SonW), Wi(PR)2EM, the Center for a Sustainable Water, Energy, and Food Nexus (SusWEF, OIA-1632824), the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust and the Puerto Rico IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (PRINBRE).
Sixty five high school students (39 women, 65 Hispanics) presented 24 posters with their results. Twelve teachers (11 women, 12 Hispanics) and 37 parents (27 women, 37 Hispanics) came to the competition and were offered a series of informative presentations while the students competed. Twenty schools started the competition with an internal competition to chose a maximum of nine students per school for the final competition. A panel of judges composed of faculty including Stelzer, industrial visitors and graduate students (including three from Wi(PR)2EM) evaluated their posters and oral presentations. The panel awarded prizes for the largest single crystal, best quality crystal, best poster presentation and best work plan. The six teams with the highest overall scores will present their work at the PRINBRE annual meeting in September 2019. PRINBRE will cover all their expenses. Five of the six teams were coached by teachers that previously participated in our RET.
