Course Description

Science Research Program – Grades 9, 10, 11, 12


Full Year – Level H: Incoming freshman and sophomore students must apply for admission to this program in January of the prior academic year. Acceptance into the program will be based on a science teacher recommendation, a written essay, and excellent academic grades.


This is an ongoing program that is taken in conjunction with the student’s regular science course. There are several tiers to the program. During Year 1 students learn the components of scientific research including the scientific method and apply these concepts in various settings including designing and conducting an authentic science research project and communicating results by participation in at least one local science fair. Students also explore various applications of science topics through field trips, guest speakers and class projects. Advanced students (Years 2-4) select their science research topic, locate an out-of-school mentor (either in industry or at a local university) and compete in a variety of science fairs including the CT State Science Fair, Southern CT Invitational Science and Engineering Fair (SCSEF) and the CT Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (CT JSHS). Advanced students pursue their selected research in depth, perform statistical analysis and compete at a number of local and/or national science fairs and competitions. In Years 2, 3, and 4 students are grouped together in a non-traditional classroom setting and are required to meet individually outside of class with their Science Research Instructor biweekly to review individual goals and assess progress. All students participate in the culminating annual activity, Amity’s Science Symposium.


Sunday, June 3, 2012

2012 Science Sympsium

Our 6th Annual Science Symposium was an incredible success! Discuss what your personal experience was preparing for and participating in the symposium by answering the following: 1. How did this compare to other symposia in the past? If this was your first Amity Science Symposium, was it what you expected? Explain. 2. What contribution did YOU make towards helping the symposium run smoothly (set up, break down, program, certificates, food etc...). 3. How many guests (that you invited) were able to come and what was their impression? 4. If you did NOT attend the symposium, what did you do instead? Explain. 5. Dr. Christopher Pittenger discussed neuroscience and psychological research related to specific disorders like depression and OCD. What was your overall impression of the Keynote presentation? Did you enjoy the topic? Was it delivered at, above or below your understanding/ability or comfort level? Why or why not? Would you be interested in pursuing research in this area? 6. What did you think about the quality and diversity of student presentations and topics? 7. Lastly, list one thing you liked BEST about the symposium (be specific) and one IMPROVEMENT that you would like to see for next year. Your BLOG post is due by the end of the first post-symposium class period.

58 comments:

  1. First Comment!!!

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  3. 2. To help prepare for the science fair, I helped to create my part of the program. Also, I helped others who were confused on how to format their abstracts into the program, allowing for the deadline for the abstracts to be achieved as quickly as possible. I also formatted and printed my brownie project in a powerpoint, along with my "About Me" slide on the back of that.

    4. Instead of going to the Amity Science Symposium, my family had made an obligation to go to a family friend's wedding. She got married on a high rise hotel directly next to the Empire State Building, resulting in an extravagant view. Many people crowded around on the rooftop to take pictures because of this as well. Inside, the food that was served was extremely delicious. It was a mix of American, Russian, and Tunisian cuisine, due to the fact that those were the nationalities of the bride and groom. The ceremony was well planned out as well (it was also on the rooftop) and everyone then went back inside to dance and congratulate the new husband and wife.

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  4. Prior to this year, I had never participated in the Amity Symposium. However, last year I came as a rising freshman, so I knew a little bit about what to expect. Last year, I was a little bit confused about what was going on. However, this year, it really exceeded my expectations. It was interesting and fun, and it really helped that I knew all of the seniors who were being honored and understood what all of the boisterous clapping was about. I contributed by bringing brownies and sticking pictures of candy on the table cloths. Also, being a freshman, I was part of the cleaning committee afterwards. Unfortunately, none of the three guests I invited were able to come. The keynote presenter, Dr. Pittenger, had a very interesting topic and a good way of presenting his findings. It was at my comfort level in terms of understanding it, so that was good as well. However, it couldn’t compare to the bat guy’s presentation. Nothing can compare to the bat guy’s presentation. But neuroscience seems to be a very interesting and rewarding field, and I would definitely be open to conducting possible research in that area. The student presentations were all very interesting and were each presented very well .There was a lot of diversity in terms of topic of the projects, and it was overall really good. The thing I liked best about this symposium was the FOOD. (No, but really. The food got everyone into a sugar-high, hyper mood, which increased the happiness of the general atmosphere.) Also, the senior tributes were very funny. One improvement that could be made for next year would be to shorten the amount of time the presentation took, because I could definitely sense a general restlessness in the crowd towards the end. Other than that, however, I think that this year’s symposium was a great success.

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  5. 1. I personally thought that this year's symposium was better in terms of presentations and keynote speaker, but the decorations could not compare from last year's symposium. The food this year was good, but the cafeteria was more decorative last year. The decorations this year were really weak. White streamers were definitely not enough.
    2. I brought in a nyan cat cake and chocolate chip cookies. Additionally, I helped decorate for the symposium after school.
    3. None of the guests I invited were able to attend.
    5. I enjoyed Dr. Pittenger's presentation. I thought that he didn't lose his audience and it was better than last year's keynote speaker, who was a bit boring. I could understand what he was explaining since he also gave us good background knowledge.
    6. The student presentations were good. None of the presentations were about the same topic or field, which made them more diverse. They presented quite smoothly too.
    7. I liked the symposium's food. The food was really good and had a nice variety. (I hope everyone liked my nyan cat cake). To improve the symposium, I think that we should try to follow the schedule better. This year, we went over time, Last year, we went too quickly and had half an hour (I think) of extra time. I'd also like to see a keynote speaker more like the bat guy, who captivated the audience with humor, yet got his message out. AND WE REALLY NEED BETTER DECORATIONS.

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  6. As an eighth grader I went to the symposium and I thought that it was good. This year, however, I found it to be wonderful! I loved the keynote speaker and all of the student presentations were wonderful. I helped decorate the table cloths with pictures of pie and candy. I invited 6 people and 4 came. They also enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker and found the overall symposium to be well put together. I really did enjoy the keynote speaker and his topic. I liked the neuroscience theme really interesting throughout the year. It was well delivered and I understood what he was talking about. I thought that there was a diversity of projects but there were a couple of people with very close topics. Some people got confused and told me that they went to one person and saw the same project a couple of tables away. However, there were many unique projects. My favorite thing at the symposium was the keynote speaker because I like to learn about health related science and my least favorite thing was the length of the symposium. By the end I was getting very tired and it i shard to say what took too long because everything was fairly short, but together the length of the symposium was getting too long. I don't if maybe for next year it can be shortened just by a few minutes.

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  7. This symposium was my first symposium and it waas unlike what i had expected. there were a lot less people than I had imgained and it was much longer than I had imagined. To make this symposium run smoothly, I helped clean up and set up some of the tables. I invited my parents and my brothers, and both of my parents showed up. They were also supriesed by the turnout. Overall, I enjoyed Dr. Pittenger's presentation and was veery intereeested because he explained everything thoroughly so it was easy to undeerstand. I may be interested in pursuing research in the neuroscience area after his presentation. I think there the student presentations were really well done and covered a diverse arrea of fields. This diveersity was good because it gave the audience a little taste of everything. My favorite part of of the night was hanging around and presenting our projects to the guests.The senior tributes and awards on the other hand I though took a while and lost the attention of the audience.

    Matt Whitehill

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  8. 1. The Amity Science symposium was the first symposium I have ever been to. It is as I expected. The schedule followed as planned. I knew what to expect. The only things that was unexpected were the senior tributes.
    2. I brought in a vegetable platter and a case of water. I also helped clean up the cafeteria after the symposium.
    3. Two of my guests came and they couldn't believe what kind of projects were developed and done just by High School students.
    4. I was at the symposium
    5. I felt that Dr. Pittenger's presentation was very informative and interesting. I enjoyed the topic. The speech was given in an easy to understand language. I was very comfortable with the topic because of the way he explained it. However, I would not like to pursue a topic in this area because I am very uncomfortable physically doing the brain examinations and seeing the actual body parts and organs.
    6. I thought that very few projects had any similar ideas or goals. I felt that all of the projects were interesting and very informative.
    7. I liked the Senior tributes the most in the Symposium due to their light and energetic feel. I felt that the time of presenting could be longer while the presentations should have been shorter.
    -Alec Melotto

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  9. Yay! We had a fun Science Symposium - it was just as I thought it would be - a fun evening to reminisce about a year of SRP, eat, and learn. Still, it was longer than most predictions. I helped out by bringing carrot cake and helping to clean up, especially with the food tables. The two guests of mine that were able to come enjoyed the symposium and felt many of the presentations were informative, while the student recognitions were interesting. Dr. Pittenger's presentation was certainly understandable and educational, but not as funny as Batman's. I would not really be that interested in his type of research. The student presentations were diverse and varied, plus very inspirational. Finally, the best part of the symposium was the Senior tributes, while an improvement could be a larger audience of people and not just parents (though I did see some community members).

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  10. This was the first Amity Science Symposium I have attended. It went as I expected, though it was a bit long. I contributed to the symposium's success both by bringing in a pecan pie and staying afterwards to help clean up the cafeteria. All five of the guests I invited came - my mom, sister, dad, grandmother, and grandfather - were able to come. However, they left after the poster session because they had other commitments. They were amazed by the efficiency of the symposium as well as the variety of both projects and food being presented. Dr. Pittenger's keynote presentation was *very* interesting, and I found it very interesting and successful at explaining the complicated process of OCD biofeedback in simple terms that everyone could understand. I would love to have him come back, and might even consider during research in his field or even with him. The selection of student projects was well done however I believe that some of them could have been condensed. They provided a good forum to think about future project ideas. My favorite part of the symposium was both Dr. Pittenger's presentation and the senior tributes. Improvements include shortening some of the presentations in order to conform to the schedule, and also, partially our fault, getting more members of the community unaffiliated with the Program to come to next year's symposium.

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  11. As my first time at the Science Research Annual Symposium, I thought that it exceeded my expectactions. I thought it was very interesting to hear about other students' projects who were not in my class and for many parents to learn about what I did for my project. For the Symposium, i decorated the tables and brought numerous platters of cookies in. I had my three guests come to the Symposium. They all enjoyed it immensely and loved seeing kids so involved withthe scientificd community. One thing that I really enjoyed about the Symposium is that mentors are recognized after each student is given their award. This shows to the mentors that they are important to the society and to Science Research. This also shows them that the program's students are very serious about learning about science. One thing that I think should be changed about the Symposium is the time presenting posters in the cafeteria. I don't think that parents and others who were invited got enough of a taste of the diferent projects tht each student did this year. I believe that students should have a slightly longer time presenting so guests can have a better experience as well as idea of what we as students do every day in class.

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  12. 1. This years symposium was very well done. I liked the wide variety of food available to choose from. However, i did find that it went a bit ;ate and presentations were very long.

    2. In helping with the symposium i constructed Ming's senior slide and delivered her tribute. Also i brought a plate of home made cookies and was on the raffle committee.

    3. Only one (my mother) of my guests i invited were able to attend this event. She found it to be well put together but a bit over her head at some points.

    4. I attended

    5. Dr. Christopher Pittenger's presentation was nice. However overall i found the subject to be a bit dry and over my head at times. My mother did not understand it as well. I myself am not interested in perusing research in this subject area.

    6. the presentations given were very well done. The students who presented had very interesting subject matter and delivered it with passion. They were also very good at explaining what exactly they did.

    7. My favorite part of the symposium wqas the food and senior tributes. One area that could be improved upon is the length of the event and a lighter key note presentation.

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  13. As far as preparation goes, compared to other years' symposia, this year's felt slightly more rushed. The day of/before the symposium, we would normally be done with everything; packet construction, decorations, etc. This year, we were still making pamphlets on the day of the symposium. However the symposium itself was certainly on par with, if not superior to, all other previous ones that I attended - the guest speaker was interesting and the senior tributes were entertaining. I brought in cheesecake and manned the Pie Table. I also help set up during the last session on Friday with decorations and such, and then helped clean up afterwards. Unfortunately none of the guests that I invited were able to make it because of prior commitments, however I'm sure they would have enjoyed this year's symposium just as much as last year's and the year before that. The keynote presentation by Dr. Pittenger was interesting and engaging, and I did enjoy it. I was capable of understanding what Dr. Pittenger was presenting, but being the son of a psychiatrist myself, I'm not sure how much everyone else understood. I'm currently not interested in this field of research, but there is certainly prospect in this area. Just as in years prior, I did not really find the student presentations too engaging, mostly because I've seen them presented throughout the year several times so this time was nothing really special. I understand, however, that the purpose of the symposium is to showcase our projects to the supporters of the SRP Program, so I didn't really mind. I most enjoyed the senior tributes this year, especially Qi's done by Peter and Andrew, for obvious reasons. They made the evening exciting and kept you on your toes because you wouldn't be able to predict what the next tribuet would entail. Next year I'd like to see another event added to the symposium, something to replace student presentations as I personally feel they're not necessary. Maybe a [comic] video presentation done by the SRP program talking about that years science fairs and such would be entertaining and consume enough to meet the symposium's time specifications.

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  14. 1. This year had things last year’s symposium did not:
    a. Plenty of food and drinks
    b. Larger audience
    c. Less poster presentations
    d. Quick and clean setup and cleanup
    2. I picked out Chris Pitt’s present, created my abstract, helped make the awards list, stuffed and organized certificates, decorated student envelopes
    3. 1 one of the guests I invited attended; they enjoyed the event.
    4. I enjoyed the keynote, though at times it was a bit dry. I am, of course, interested in neuroscience so I would like to continue researching it. It was delivered at my intelligence level.
    5/6. I enjoyed the student’s presentations, but the thing I would change for next year is to make sure that each class level is represented. There was no sophomore presenter and that seemed a bit unfair. The Sikorsky group should have probably counted as a separate category instead of a representation for the sophomores, as there was only one sophomore in the group, while there were three juniors. Another thing I would like to see changed is the amount of pies we bring to the event. I get that it is pie, nerdy and all, but it seems like a waste when eight or nine pies are left untouched through the event. Perhaps, we can have a limit.
    7. I enjoyed the fact that the community came out to attend our event. I also loved the senior tributes.

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  15. This year's symposium was better than two years ago in terms of presentations and keynote speakers, but the decorations could have been a little bit better. That said, the food was much better and while there was a lack in decorations, the white banners were very classy. I brought an apple pie and was in charge of the pie table. I also helped set up before school ended and then again before the symposium started. My biggest contribution was probably my senior tribute for David Powers. Out of the guests I invited only two were able to come. I did not enjoy Dr. Pittenger's presentation because he had interesting material, but did not efficiently present it. He explained everything well, but did not maintain the attention of the audience. I thought that the student presentations were better than his. Maybe that's because I was just more invested in the speakers because they were friends. I couldn't eat any of the food because of my allergies but I ate before hand so it was fine. The snapple though was delicious. To improve the symposium we should try and get a more entertaining and casual speaker like batman. While I understand it is difficult to find keynote speakers for a high school science research symposium, we should plan ahead more and schedule the speaker as soon as possible.

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  16. 1. I thought the symposium went very well. It definitely compares with the symposiums of previous years. Everything went very smoothly and it seemed like everyone had a nice time. There was a nice variety of desserts.
    2. I made all of the student certificates for the symposium. I also helped set up for the symposium during period 6 on Friday.
    3. Only one of the guests I invited was able to attend the fair. As a whole he greatly enjoyed the symposium. He was very impressed by all the different student projects.
    4. I attended the symposium.
    5. Overall, I thought the presentation delivered by Dr. Pittenger was very interesting. I felt that it was at a level nearly everyone in the audience could easily understand. Pittenger did a very good job at explaining things and keeping the audience interested. At times he was also very funny. I definitely would be interested in this area of study. His research can have a huge impact of the treatment of many mental disorders.
    6. I was very impressed by the student presentations. There was a good amount of diversity and they were very high quality projects. I really liked Zizi’s presentation on her experiences in the program.
    7. I enjoyed all the different types of desserts the most, and one improvement I would make would be a shorter 7th inning stretch. It ended up lasting almost 20 minutes and put the symposium behind schedule.

    -David Powers

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  17. 1. I have been to two other symposia in the past and this year it was good but with all of the science research students crowding around the food it did seem a bit disorganized.
    2. For the symposium i did alot of work formatting all of the abstracts so that when it was finalized in the brochure they were all the same. I also came early and did some touching up in the cafeteria.
    3. I invited my mom, dad, and mentor who sadly was not able to stay very long and they all thought it was a good event and it was very well organized.
    4. I did not have a earlier commitment and was able to come to the symposium.
    5. I thought that Chris Pittenger's presentation about the disorders was very cool and it gave me alot of insight on psychology research and i am interested in researching it.
    6. I thought that all of the student presentation topics were diverse.
    7. The best part of the symposium was the "chillaxin' and nibblin'", but one improvement was to make it a little bit more organized.

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  18. Compared to the symposium last year, I think that this year was actually a great improvement. Though I cannot say that the food was necessarily better, the senior tributes and guest speaker were more entertaining to my interests. Overall, though we were not as prepared, we managed to tie everything together nicely at the last minute. For this year, I helped with mentor and student certificates, the program, the beginning of set up on Friday, and was the Emcee! This year, I sent an invite to 4 people to come to the symposium. Unfortunately, both my mentor and my mom could not make it on that day, but my dad and weison came (but I’m pretty sure a majority of the junior class sent weison an email, so I can’t take all the credit). My dad thought it was really good, and a lot of fun! Personally, I enjoyed this year’s guest speaker the most since neuroscience has always really interested me. Even though the beginning of the presentation was somewhat stale, when Dr. Pittenger went on to discuss his research project, it was really entertaining and educational. It was easy to understand, and I even talked to him about possibly helping me with my project for next year. The student presentations were also really enjoyable, and allowed students to listen to other award winning research that they might have had a chance to be exposed to; it really sets the standard! My favorite part was that the senior presenter was changed to talk about his/her overall experience at Amity instead of their research project that year. I wish all seniors could have done it!
    My favorite portion of the symposium this year would have to be just being the emcee. Though the speech might not have been as joke-ridden, it was still a lot of fun to stand up in front of this year’s science research students and parents. An improvement for next year would to possibly extend the time spent looking at the posters before the actual symposium, and allowing people more time to interact and get their projects shown. I also wish more people could’ve attended! We need to “save the date” even earlier for next year!

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  19. 1)This symposium was fun and interesting! Because I knew the seniors this year, I was able to understand the senior tributes and enjoy them more. Also, I found this year’s speaker very interesting, and the projects were equally as interesting. The food that was provided was great, especially that Nyan Cat cake, and the rap performed was equally as entertaining.
    2)I helped bring in cupcakes! But on a more serious note, I created the awards list, and also helped make the senior and sophomore photo slides. Although I was unable to help with the set up or clean up, the symposium still ran very smoothly and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
    3)Out of the people that I invited, only 3 came. However, they all enjoyed the fun and quirky atmosphere of the symposium, and especially liked the food. When they heard Dr. Pittenger’s presentation, they told me that they were very interested, as it applied to them particularly, since they claimed they had OCD.
    4)Omitted because it is not relevant.
    5)Although the presentation was on Friday, I remember being distinctly interested in the presentation. I found the idea of controlling your brain activity very intriguing, as if one could easily learn to control their OCD, would it also be possible to learn how to control various other parts of the brain? The concept of the presentation was easily explained and therefore I understood the idea of his project very quickly. By explaining the key concepts of his project, such as OCD, and then providing examples which I could understand and relate to, I understood. I would absolutely be interested in researching more into this type of field!
    6)I thought the quality and diversity of science projects gave insight to the public of the diversity of science research. Different people are interested in different things, and I believe that a lot of different fields of study were provided in our symposium. With the variety of projects, I was able to gain some inspiration for possible future projects.
    7)The one thing I liked best about the science symposium was the senior presentation by Zizi, because she explained all of her four years at Amity Science Research with such enthusiasm that I was drawn into her projects. In addition, she provided many pictures and detailed explanations, which helped me visualize her experiences. A couple things I would suggest improvements on would be the time management, as we went over the listed time, a longer time presenting to the public and nibbling on the food, and shorter presentations. Both the Sikorsky group and Zizi’s presentation took a very long time to present, and I believe that this detailed explanation of the project was not necessary. Because the times given to the presentations were short, we were forced to stay until 9:30pm, when the symposium was supposed to end at 9pm.
    J.Zhu

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  20. This was an excellent symposium. As far as comparisons go, this was probably my favorite overall so far. I loved the guest speaker and enjoyed all the food this year. I also enjoyed the opportunity to present this year. Since I was a junior, I was much better acquainted with everyone this time, which only made everything more enjoyable.
    I contributed to the symposium in many ways. The first thing I did was assist with edit the abstracts inside the symposium program along with Shanuk. I also contributed by baking a delicious lemon meringue pie for the pie table. But my favorite contribution was assisting Peter with his “rap”.
    All of the guests I invited came to the symposium. They all enjoyed the evening. My father in particular was very fascinated by the guest speaker. However, the Sikorsky project really confused him.
    I really enjoyed Dr. Pittenger’s presentation. Human behavior has always been very fascinating to me personally, but the way he approached it was incredibly engaging. The way he addressed his work as “studying the most fascinating thing in the universe” really shows how dedicated he is to his research, which is really inspiring to see, especially in a professional like him. I really enjoyed what he had to say because of that. It was right at my level because it was thought provoking while still easily understandable. I’d love pursuing this research further, especially if I were able to work with Dr. Pittenger.
    I really liked the diversity of topics. Sort of surprisingly, I thought the solar power one was the most interesting. But they were all very high quality.
    This year, I really liked the food and the guest speaker above all else. If I could make one improvement, it would be DEFINITELY be moving the symposium to a night that isn’t right before the SATs and the 8th grade student dance. Many 8th graders, including my sister couldn’t attend because of the conflict even though many of them wanted to go. And I really could have used some extra SAT study time.

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  21. 1. This symposium was a lot better than symposia in the past primarily because I was interested in the guest speaker topic and because I had more friends to sit with this time around. In addition, Peter’s rap really spiced up the night.
    2. I helped with the mentor bios; I edited all the mentor bios into a consistent format.
    3. 3 out of the 5 guests were able to come. All 3 really liked the senior tributes and all three thought the Keynote speaker was a good presenter and was presenting an interesting topic. All 3 liked the food and drinks as well.
    4. I attended the symposium.
    5. I really liked the keynote presentation. I appreciated the fact that he tried to present in an interesting manner. I really enjoyed the topic and am considering contacting Dr. Pittinger to be my mentor, if possible. Dr. Pittinger delivered the presentation at understanding ability; he was very successful in dumbing down the complex topic of neuroscience. I am very interested in pursuing research in this area after I listened to Dr. Pittinger's presentation on his own original research.
    6. The Sikorsky Team’s presentation of their project added variety that I have not seen before in any of the other symposiums of the past. Adding a purely engineering type project went well with the other science projects. All presented well, although the Sikorsky Project’s was a little boring (probably because I have already seen it once before).
    7. Peter’s rap was the best part about this symposium. One improvement I would like to see next year is to make the Symposium shorter. Maybe we can have one less student presentation.

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  22. This symposium was very good, comparable to both of my past symposia. The keynote speaker was very interesting and there was good attendance. The food was also good, but there really weren’t that many decorations. For the symposium, I helped edit abstracts, helped make edit and copy the booklet, brought in cookies, and also helped set up a little in the beginning. Only one of the guests that I invited was able to come, and that was my mom, who came for like an hour. She thought that, from what she saw, it was very cool and entertaining and she had a good time. Overall, I really liked the keynote presentation. The topic was very cool because he was able to explain many of the functions that he was studying very well. The explanation was perfect; it was very informative, yet it was not too detailed, so it was at the perfect level of understanding for me. I would definitely be interested in pursuing a career in this area because, by the way that it was presented, it seemed very interesting and informative. The presentations were very diverse and covered a wide range of topics and areas. However, I would say that many of the presenters could have used more practice, because some seemed like they got lost in their presentations. My favorite part of the symposium was listening to Peter’s rap. I thought that it was really entertaining and funny, and I liked Dr. Britton’s reaction. One thing that could have been improved about the symposium was the decoration. The café could have used more decorating, to give it a more neuroscience feel.

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  23. This year’s preparation went pretty well. The day of the symposium we had most of the work done, including decorations. The symposium was superior to the previous ones I have attended. The guest speaker was the most interesting that it has been so far and the senior tributes were very good. I brought in pumpkin pie for the Pie Table. I also helped set up during the last session of the school day on Friday with decorations, and also helped clean up with Ehsan afterwards. Unfortunately none of the guests that I invited were able to make it because they were committed to other events beforehand. The keynote presentation by Dr. Pittenger was interesting and I definitely enjoyed it. I understood everything Dr. Pittenger was talking about. I’m currently not interested in pursuing research in that field, but there is definitely room to look around. I did not really find the student presentations too engaging, mostly because I’ve seen them presented throughout the year so it was nothing too new. I understand that the purpose of the symposium was to showcase our projects to other students so I didn’t mind. I most enjoyed the senior tributes this year, especially Peter and Andrew, for their rap. They made the evening more exciting and kept interested because you didn’t know what was coming up in the next tribute. Next year I’d like to see another event added to symposium instead of student presentations because they aren’t really necessary. Most of the people at the symposium are students and have heard the presentations several times. Maybe a video presentation talking about the science fairs would be entertaining.

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  24. Tanay -
    This symposium was the most fun out of all the previous ones I have attended. I helped by editing the abstracts with Brian and Satish. This was a super annoying process because all the science research students wrote in different formats and fonts and I had to make everything uniform. I also brought apple pie. I invited four guests, and two of them came. One was a first timer and was quite impressed with the quality of the high school projects that were presented. Chris Pittenger was a fantastic oral presenter. He was very engaging, and he was able to convey the information in layman’s terms which were supplemented well with pictures. I thought the student presentations were only OK. After following the keynote, it was almost an unfair comparison. However, I thoroughly enjoyed Zizi’s presentation. The best part of the symposium was Peter’s rap for Qi which was really funny. Next year I would like to see better decorations in the cafeteria.

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  25. This symposium was my first, since I had to go on a field trip last year. It pretty much lived up to my expectations. To contribute to the symposium, I typed up the schedule of events for the program. I also brought an apple pie for the pie table. I also hounded people for money for Ms. Day’s present. One of my guests was able to come (and stay), and she enjoyed the symposium. Dr. Pittenger’s presentation was interesting, and I was able to understand most of it. I would definitely be interested in related research. The quality of student presentations was very good and diverse. My favorite part of the symposium was the food, but I would have fewer pies for next year since there were so many pies that weren’t finished.

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  26. Kristin Zakoworotny
    The Science Symposium was just what I expected. It was informative, fun, and had great food. I helped a lot in the set up for the symposium. I helped set up the decorations, made the freshman filler page for the brochure, helped staple the brochure, and made delicious brownies. None of the guests that I invited were able to come, but next year I will be sure to be better at advertising for this exciting event! The keynote presentation was great. Dr. Pittenger was very interesting and did a good job keeping at an understandable level. And, anything that was not common knowledge was explained thoroughly by Dr. Pittenger. I enjoyed the topic and will look into possible research projects relating to his speech. Some of the student presentations were a little boring, but overall there was a good variety of topics. I enjoyed the food the best (especially the brownies that I made). An improvement for next year is keeping on schedule. The symposium went 30 minutes longer than intended which is unacceptable.

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  27. This is the third symposium that I attended. Of them, this seems to have been my favorite. The presentations were interesting and the guest speaker was great. I brought a pie to the symposium. Additionally, I was one of the PowerPoint presenters and presented during the symposium. I invited 5 people. I tried sending an invitation through CTiHub to two of the Sikorsky group’s mentors. Either they didn’t get it or something happened with iHub and they never responded to the message. I also invited both my parents who came along with my aunt. They all loved it and were impressed at both the quality of the students’ projects and presentations as well as the overall well organization of the event. Pittenger’s presentation on disorders like OCD wasn’t at all boring and was quite interesting. He made the presentation interesting for a topic that doesn’t usually interest me. The presentation was entertaining and easy to understand. Like said previously, neuroscience doesn’t particularly interest me so I don’t think I’d like to pursue a career in that field. In general, all students’ projects were both interesting and well done. The presentations were good and the event was well organized. Everything was great but Peter’s rap was by far the best part. As good as it was, there were two things that the symposium lacked. Many students didn’t stay at their posters. Also, the decorations were minimal and could’ve been better.
    -Ben Staniewicz

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  28. Qi Yan
    1. How did this compare to other symposia in the past?
    This symposium was the same as the others in the past.
    2. What contribution did YOU make towards helping the symposium run smoothly (set up, break down, program, certificates, food etc...).
    I printed out the cover pages.
    3. How many guests (that you invited) were able to come and what was their impression?
    1, guest, I have no idea, ask Weison.
    5. Dr. Christopher Pittenger discussed neuroscience and psychological research related to specific disorders like depression and OCD. What was your overall impression of the Keynote presentation? Did you enjoy the topic? Was it delivered at, above or below your understanding/ability or comfort level? Why or why not? Would you be interested in pursuing research in this area?
    It was boring because I heard it before so it was like hearing the same thing over again so it was not that new and exciting. I enjoyed the topic but it was still boring listening to something I have heard before. I think he delivered it at a comfortable level since he used small words and I heard the presentation before. I would not be interested in researching this area because there’s too many variables involved when the brain is concerned so it would be hard to know what really happened.
    What did you think about the quality and diversity of student presentations and topics?.
    I thought the quality was good, people knew what they were talking about but there was not a lot of diversity because it was all mostly engineering projects. Even though it’s good quality it was still boring because I’ve heard most of these presentations before.
    Lastly, list one thing you liked BEST about the symposium (be specific) and one IMPROVEMENT that you would like to see for next year.
    The thing that I liked best was the cheesecake. An improvement would be to bring in more cheesecake and real food, like a subway, and not snacks, like dip and chips.

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  29. I enjoyed this year’s symposium very much. I think it was the best so far because I felt like I was closer to the Amity Science Research community. When you feel more comfortable with people you know, it is more enjoyable. For the symposium, I worked on the food list and collected project titles from others. In addition, I help put together symposium programs. Out of all the guests I invited, only three came. Many really enjoyed the symposium and thought it was different from what they usually see. I thought the keynote presentation was interesting. I like the way he projected his voice into the audience. He seemed like he was interested in what he was saying. I love to hear about psychological research, so the presentation was definitely intriguing to me. I think I would be interested in pursuing research in psychology. I thought the diversity of the projects was perfect for this event. Each presentation was brief, yet fulfilled. One thing I liked best out of the symposium was the food. I love all sorts of sweets so that was definitely great. One improvement I think we can improve on is the decorations. Our theme was neuroscience; however, I didn’t get the vibe that it was neuroscience themed.

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  30. This symposium was so much better than last years – despite the lack of decorations. It was far more engaging in terms of the keynote speaker as well as the senior tributes which I felt were very light-hearted, fun, yet still fitting the mood of the event. The tributes especially really lightened up the mood after some serious and sad info that Mrs. Wysinowski who had been with SRP since its inception was leaving us. The food was above average but the decorations were truly subpar.
    2. I was a part of the decorations committee so I helped with getting in decorations, eating utensils, and food. I was also a part of planning Qi’s senior tribute and I was the “serious” part of his tribute. Other than that, I also helped to organize the collection of money for Ms. Day’s gift.
    3. No, unfortunately none of the guests that invited were able to come.
    4. I was at the symposium
    5. I really enjoyed Dr. Pittenger’s presentation on OCD and neurology. I felt that his presentation was delivered at my intelligence level so even I could understand what he was talking about.
    6. I liked the senior tributes the best, especially when Peter broke out into a laugh. Elliad’s tribute for David Powers was also hilarious and resulted in and tons of laughter from both me and the audience.
    7. If I could improve the symposium, I would definitely not assign me to the decorations committee because the decorations were horrible. There weren’t even any brains… which was quite disappointing because I wanted to see the brains.

    Andrew Chen

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  31. 1. I think this year’s Amity Science Research Symposium was one of the best symposiums I have ever attended during my three years in the Science Research Program. The student presentations, senior tributes, and food were all wonderful and Professor Pittenger’s presentation was extremely interesting. The decorations, however, were lacking compared to last year. I feel that with more help for decorations, such as purchasing neuroscience-like decorations on Amazon.com (which Andrew Chen was supposed to do), the science symposium’s atmosphere would have also improved from last year’s.

    2. To help out at the symposium, I purchased tablecloths, streamers, napkins, plates, etc. in order to decorate the cafeteria. I even made a poster to hang up as a sign to welcome all visitors. While I was not forced to bring in any food items, due to the decorations that I brought in, my mother volunteered to bake brownies.

    3. I invited both of my mentors, my immediate family, a family friend, and my grandmother. My mentors were in New York for a neuroscience presentation and were unable to attend. My mother, father, and both sisters were able to attend. They all enjoyed the science symposium, and my parents were very interested in Prof. Pittenger’s presentation. My sisters were a little bored, but they always get fidgety while sitting for long periods of time. My grandmother was also able to attend, but had to leave early.

    4. I attended the symposium.

    5. Professor Pittenger’s presentation was phenomenal. It was extremely interesting and was very similar to the type of research I completed this year. Because I work one lab over from Professor Pittenger, I was able to connect with him outside of the symposium as well. Professor Pittenger and I have met at previous neuroscience meetings at Yale, and I had previously heard of some of Pittenger’s work before he found his conclusions. I feel that his presentation was at a good level of understanding. This may be due to my previous knowledge of the topic; however, I think his word choice and careful explanation of difficult terms made his presentation easy to comprehend. It was interesting to see how his results turned out. I am currently formulating a project for next year, and would love to have some input from Pittenger along with my mentors.

    6. The student projects were great. I enjoyed the Sikorsky group’s presentation and seeing visual aspects of their work. Furthermore, Daniel’s geodesic dome project was extremely interested and I was amazed at the work he had done in only his first year. I also enjoyed seeing Zizi’s fascinating research as she told her journey since his freshman year in the program.

    7. The only improvement I could see for next year would be better decorations and staying within the correct time frame. I felt that the symposium could have been decorated better and more centered around the neuroscience theme. Furthermore, the symposium ended very late and it was very hard to study late at night for the SATs the next morning.

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  32. ^ that comment was Peter Satonick's

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  33. I had never gone to the Symposium before and this year’s Symposium passed my expectations. To contribute with the efforts of the Symposium, I brought in chocolate chip cookies, printed out pictures of pie and pi for the pie table, and finally helped clean up when the Symposium was done. My mom was the only one that could come and she said she was extremely impressed with the keynote speaker and how the whole Symposium was set up. I enjoyed the presentation by Dr. Christopher Pittenger and thought the topic was interesting. Dr. Pittenger was able to carefully explain the details of his research by splitting up the presentation in way which the majority of the people at the Symposium would be able to understand. I don’t think I would want to pursue this field but I still think it would be a fun thing to research. The student’s presentations and topics were very unique, detailed with lots of background information and how they performed their projects. The thing I liked the most at the Symposium were the senior tributes like when one of the students started rapping a song in honor of a senior or “traveled into the future” and brought back pictures. One thing that I think could be improved was the length of the presentation because it took a half hour longer then everybody expected it to.

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  34. As a first time symposium goer, this symposium exceeded my expectations. I expected it to be a little bit dull, however I found it very entertaining. From guessing at the candy raffle, or listening to Dr. Pittenger, there was not a dull moment. I contributed to the symposium by printing out pictures of Pie(or pi) for the Pie table, brought chips for the food table and helped clean up afterwards. I invited four guests, but only three could attend. I enjoyed Dr. Pittenger's keynote, but found it a little bit above my understand level at some parts, but he went into detail to make most things pretty clear, which piqued my interest into possibly pursuing research in the neuroscience field. I also enjoyed the diverse project presentation like Danny's geodesic dome project. One possible improvement is to put the 7th inning stretch before the keynote, because I got a little fidgety from sitting still too long and a little thirsty.

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  35. This was the first symposium I ever attended and definitely met my expectations. The food was phenomenal and the speaker captivated my attention. It was nice to see everyone dressed up and celebrate our hard work and achievements from the past year. I helped setting up for the symposium during 8th period on Friday and I sent in my mentor bios and abstracts on time. Three of the guests that I invited were able to attend. They all agreed that although the symposium seemed to drag on at times, it overall was a very interesting event. I thought Dr. Pittenger’s presentation was very interesting and accessible, since a lot of people have a personal connection to OCD. His presentation was at my understanding ability. I would be interested in pursuing research in this area. I really enjoyed listening to Zizi’s senior presentation. I thought it summed up her experience here at Amity and Science Research very well. The best part of the symposium was the senior tributes, especially Peter’s rap. They were all very heartfelt and made me realize I would be sad to see them all go. For next year, I hope it takes less time to distribute the certificates because it takes up too much time.

    Helen Zhao

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  36. Tyler Ronne

    1. No, it wasn’t what I expected. I expected it to be more “up tight but instead it was very “chillaxed”. Instead of having to formally greet people it was more of a walk around and see other projects people have done and explain your own to whom ever wanted to see it. 2. To help, I brought 2 cases of water and I helped clean up at the end and attempted to help the set up in the beginning. 3. 3 out of 3 of my invited people came and were very interested in our guest speakers work. 4. – 5. The guest speakers study was very interesting and very understandable. While listening to his presentation, I was imagining all the possible future study you could do by controlling your own brain in the way he explained. There are countless possibilities for future applications. 6. I thought there were a lot of studies that included human participants and psychology. There were also a few abstract ideas. 7. I enjoyed the food. The food arrangements were definitely the best part. I think we could shorten the award ceremony too keep the crowds attention.

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  37. 1. I thought the Amity Science Symposium was very impressive. The Symposium went exactly as planned and as expected. There was a lot of yummy food, interested visitors and a fantastic guest speaker.
    2. To help with the Science Symposium, I brought brownies and helped clean up after the conclusion of the fair.
    3. Of the five people I invited, two attended. They both thought the event was very well put together and a nice way to end the year. They enjoyed seeing all the projects and the guest speaker.
    4. I attended the Science Symposium
    5. I thought the keynote presentation was very interesting. The topic of neuroscience and psychological research on disorders like depression and OCD was very interesting and fascinating. I enjoyed the presentation and thought it was delivered in a very intriguing way that we all understood. The PowerPoint and pictures were very interesting as well. The topic of neuroscience on disorders like depression and OCD would be a very fascinating area to pursue.
    6. I liked how Zizi shared her "life story" of her time at Amity and in science research. It was very interesting and gave a lot of ideas on how to run and find something to investigate. Also, I liked how the others shared their PowerPoint presentations about their projects. It was very interesting to see what their past year's project was. By having different types of presentations made the experience very entertaining.
    7. I thought the best part of the Symposium was the senior tributes. It was very nice and fun to see all the seniors’ pictures, projects and speeches about them. But, I thought one improvement could be to make the meeting in the auditorium shorter. I thought it ran overtime and there were some unnecessary parts that made it very long. But other than that, it was a very successful symposium.

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  38. The symposium was just as good as years past. I can’t say it was better than the past as they were all really good. I can say though that I enjoyed this one more. I enjoyed this one more as I got to help behind the scenes more than any other year. Last year I helped with the abstracts and the name tags, but this year I got to play a bigger role not only did I do a senior tribute for Ming working with Samantha, I also created and designed the PowerPoint that we used for the symposium. This was a large task that came with some stress trying to get everyone organized and make sure everything would look good and run smoothly for the big day. I also helped with set up and brought in food. I feel the lead up to this year’s symposium was special for me and it made that day even more special than in years past. For the event I invited my mentor along with my parents and sister and 4 others who I thought would be interested in our symposium. Out of that 7 came, my parents and sister along with my mentor and 3 others. My parents liked the symposium and even commented that the guest speaker was good saying that he made it appropriate for the audience. Two of the other guests also said that they thought that it was good how it was interesting and that he catered the presentation to a high school audience. Also, my sister liked the presentation as she is studding a similar area and is interested in that type of research as she is studding a similar topic but with children. I personally thought that he was good and enjoyed his presentation even though I am not as interested in neuroscience. The presentation was at a perfect level as it was not to hard to understand yet I came out feeling as though I had learned a lot. I think that the student presentations were great… although I might be a little bias as I was a presenter. The topics were very diverse and thought that they were all good. I liked that the senior presenter did a overview of all her years but I would have also enjoyed to hear a little about her research this year. The group was also good and I hope they win the challenge. And the freshman project was really good and he spoke well about his project. The one thing I liked best about the symposium was the student presentations as I enjoy hearing about other students research even if they aren’t in the same class as me. Although, the beginning part where we set up the posters and present and look at others posters is my least favorite part as many students were not at their posters and I wanted my sister to see some of the students research as she has this new found love for research yet it was hard to get students to tell her about their research as they were not at their posters or didn’t want to present making it kind of awkward to ask about their research. Although that part of the symposium wasn’t completely bad as I did hear about some student’s research and learned a few new things.

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  39. Zhang Liu
    1. This year’s symposium was more enjoyable than the symposium I attended as a freshman. The selection of food did not seem to be as large, but that may have been due to the fact that I arrived late after being sick. The keynote presentation was on a more interesting topic than the previous one but was not as engaging. I have not been to a symposium in a long time, so it certainly felt like a new experience. The symposium was just as I expected: lots of students and adults mingling and talking about their projects, academic interests, or science in general.
    2. I completed my responsibilities, including my powerpoint slide, my abstract, as well as Ming’s abstract, Zizi’s senior tribute slide, and her senior tribute speech.
    3. I invited my parents, who both attended the symposium. Their feedback was positive. They both enjoyed the presentation and were interested because they were not familiar with the topic of biofeedback.

    5. The keynote presentation was very interesting. The topic itself was interesting and not too complicated for a high school student. Dr. Pittenger was a good speaker. He was funny but not too funny, as he said himself. He gave a good background explanation of his field and his research. I felt he could have expanded more on his area of research, but overall he explained himself well. I would definitely be interested in his field of research. It seems very exciting and has many applications.
    6. The student presentations were satisfactory, if I may say so myself ;). The Sikorsky presentation was a bit unrehearsed and unorganized, but I feel we imparted the important ideas from our project. Danny’s presentation was very interesting. He shows the certain potential of freshman projects to succeed and is a great example for other younger SRP students. Jordan’s presentation was interesting. Her project was original and refreshing. Overall, I thought Zizi’s presentation was a great way to highlight important lessons while summarizing her four years.
    7. My favorite part of the symposium was being able to hear new people present. I don’t get many chances to hear people like Zizi, Danny, and Jordan present, so it was good to hear them. To improve the symposium, we can create a forum. We would propose a problem and hire a panel of experts in their fields to facilitate a conversation about that certain problem.

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  40. This was my first year both attending, and participating in the Amity Science Research symposium. It was very much what I expected it to be from what I heard from Ms. Day and other advanced students.I helped contribute to the symposium by printing out pictures for the tables, bringing in snapple, and helping cleaning up after. Three of my guests that were invited attended and they enjoyed the experience very much. They thought it was great to see what kids in the community are learning about. Also, one of those guests being my seventh grade sister, she liked attending to possibly see if she was interested in the program in future years.
    I thought that the Keynote speaker was fabulous in every aspect, his subject also went along perfectly with the theme. I thought it was delivered well and was appropriate for my knowledge level. Even though I wasn't totally familiar with every topic he mentioned, it is always good to be challenged.
    The students who presented at the symposium did excellent. I think it was great to see what some of the most elite student are doing in the program.
    The best part about the night would have to be the time from 5:45-6:30 when we got to tell other people about our projects. I love sharing my data and knowledge with others and comparing and contrasting ideas. The food was also very good too. One improvement I would like to see for next year would be to make the social time or poster viewing time in the beginning longer.

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  41. Owais Khan

    This was my first symposium and was nothing far from what I had expected. My expectation was that we would all have a short session where we would present to parents even though most people wouldn’t present and then we’d go to the auditorium for speeches, overviews of projects, and awards. This is pretty much what happened. A contribution I made to the symposium was that I brought samosas for people to eat there and I aided in helping putting up tables and cleaning things away. At the symposium, I invited 5 people, none of whom were able to come. My overall impression of the keynote was that it was informative and fun at times and I enjoyed the presentation, but I do not think it would be a field of study I am interested in pursuing. Neuroscience itself might be a topic in some other field, but I am not interested in going into any psychological field for a career. The way the presentation was delivered was at my understanding ability because I knew what he was saying and there was nothing that I couldn’t understand, but I am not that interested in the topic. The amount of different topics at the symposium was large as almost every person has different projects and I felt the quality of the projects were great. This is because everyone has put a year’s work into their projects and all the science researchers have done an excellent job. I felt that the best part of the symposium was listening to Zizi’s story. It really taught me a lot about how real research works and I found it very inspiring. What I felt could improve at the symposium would be to make it a little more lively. Maybe a little music playing in the background as people filed in could make it more lively.

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  42. This was my first symposium and since I looked at previous pictures the actual experience was extremely similar to what actually happened. I did expect to have to present my poster more. I brought cinnamon buns and helped to clean-up after the symposium was done. Two of the guests actually came and they both were impressed at the level the projects were at. They also found the presentations to be interesting. I thought the keynote presentation was interesting and I thought the length was tolerable, but I was tired at that part so it started to get hard to hold my focus. I, though, would not want to pursue that career path because it doesn't interest me.
    I thought there was a great diversity in the different presentations, but it did take a while to get through all of them. The best part was all of the food and showing my project to my family. I think we could improve the symposium by adding a little more time to view the posters

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  43. ~Joseph Neumann


    This was my second year attending this symposium. It was a slight improvement over the first one, as it was more orderly. 2. I contributed to the symposium by providing some food and cleaning up when the symposium ended. 3. 3 people came, and they were moderately interested. 4. Not applicable to me. 5. He was doing his best to interest the participants with the topic of neuroscience. I was moderately interested with the topic. The level, while somewhat lower than my level of understanding, the presentation had to be presented at a level that younger kids would partially understand. I would not be interested in this research because most research about the brain makes little progress towards an actual product. The diversity of the products was present, but the experiments would make little progress towards innovation and real-world applications. 7. The thing I liked best about the symposium was the presentations made by other classmates. What I could do to improve next year is devise an experiment that would have actual applications in the real world.

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  44. Noah Gallant

    1. This was personally my first Symposium and it was quite unique compared to any of the science fairs we had participated in before. I felt that the symposium was more focused on us rather than the projects we had made, since we barely presented.

    2. I contributed to the Symposium by bringing in pie as well as breaking down.

    3. I was able to bring three guests. All of them really enjoyed seeing the other presentations and really liked the keynote speaker and other student speakers.

    4. N/A

    5. I really enjoyed Prof. Pittenger's presentation and thought it was very intelligent. While I did enjoy his presentation I was not very interested in the topic overall. It was delivered very comfortably to understand for me because of his good explanation of big words. I would not be very interested in pursuing a project in this range of research.

    6. I believe that the range and intelligence of all of the student's in Science Research's project was very large.

    7. I believe the best thing was the wide range and variety of food. I also think one thing for improvement is the period when the students are supposed to present their projects could be more organized.

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  45. 1. I thought that the symposium was more fun than the one that I went to last year, but maybe it's because I'm now part of Science Research.
    2. I helped to clean up and brought cookies!
    3. My mom was able to come and she thought it was really well organized.
    5. I thought Dr. Pittenger's presentation was nice. He seemed very passionate about his area of study, and it was interesting. However, he was not very involved with the audience and after a while I found it a bit boring.
    6. I thought the student presentations were the best out of all the presentations. They were very engaging and I especially liked hearing Zizi's story, which was interesting and inspiring.
    7. What I liked best about the symposium was the food and social time. An improvement for the symposium would be that next time, it should be a little shorter. By the end, I felt pretty tired.

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  46. This was actually my second science symposium and I knew generally what was supposed to happen. However, I thought that it was better than I had expected. A contribution that I made to the symposium was that I helped set up the cafeteria during 6th session on Friday. Though only my sister was able to come, she really enjoyed looking at the posters and hearing the keynote speaker. I feel that the symposium left a positive impression on how she feels about science. I attended the symposium. My overall impression of the keynote speaker was that he delivered his research in a very understandable, yet enthusiastic manner. Though I would not be interested in further pursuing this subject, I think it is very interesting and important to study. I liked the fact that no two projects were identical, and also that each student presented their research in a unique manner. What I liked best about the symposium was that all the students supported each other. I felt that it was a great bonding experience. One improvement that could be considered for next year is a slideshow with music and pictures from major events as a overview of the past years activities.

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  47. Daniel Giebisch

    1.
    This sience fair focused more on a collection of interesting topics rather than competing between projects.

    2.
    I contributed by bringing SNAPPPPLLLLLEEEEEE. and tearing down after the symposium was finished.

    3.
    I brought my sister, mother, grandfather, and mentor. They all enjoyed the projects and speeches.

    5.
    I enjoyed the keynote presentation and thought it was and interesting topic. He made a very complex subject easy to understand. Though I am not interested in neurosience, I would not be interested in researching in this area.

    6.
    I think the diversity of all of the projects was impressive. The quality was very high.

    7.
    The BEST thing was the "refreshments". Next year, the balance between kneynote speeches and group presenting time could be improved

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  48. Before this symposium, I had never been to a symposium before. From what I heard that the symposium was supposed to be, it followed my initial expectations. I brought a pie to the symposium and I helped clean up after the event. Everyone that I invited was able to come to the symposium. Both of my parents came, two of my aunts came, one of my uncles came and my cousin came. Everyone enjoyed looking at all the projects and hearing about what the students are researching. My cousin is young so they unfortunately had to leave at the break because she was tired. I actually really enjoyed the presentation. Ever since sixth grade, the brain has been something that has interested me. I really liked how he didn’t have many words on each slides just a lot of pictures and he spoke the information. It really showed how well he knew the information. He also spoke in a way that was easy to understand. I think that further research into the brain would definitely be a possible topic for me in the future. I think it’s great that all of the students have such diversity in their interests. All of the projects that I saw were very good and the quality was high. I liked the keynote presentation because for me, it triggered one of my interests. The last part of the symposium was a bit long and I think that if it was shortened a little bit, it would be more enjoyable.

    Gabrielle Totten

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  49. This was the first year I participated in the Amity Science Symposium. It was exactly what I expected because advanced students informed me what was to happen that night. I contributed by decorating the outside of the school building, bringing in an English Trifle and cleaning up afterwards. My guests were not able to attend the symposium due to having obligations to other places. The keynote speaker was very informative and was not that boring. He was able to explain his topic very thoroughly with many details. It was delivered at my comfort level of understanding. This is true because I had some background knowledge of neuroscience and psychology and learning more about these two topics was very interesting. I thought the presentations were well done and the projects were full of valuable information due to the fact that the students had all year to work on them. My favorite part of the symposium was the student presentations because that helped me learn about their experience throughout the year. One improvement could be that the break could be longer that way people would be more awake and alert for the student presentations.

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  50. The symposium this year was very similar to those in the past. There was a similar schedule, the same food layout, and similar people there. There was a little bit of a bigger turnout this year and the amount of people contributed to an enjoyable evening.
    I helped the symposium to get on its feet by organizing the student and mentor certificates. I prepared and presented Zelun Wang’s farewell slide and also brought some food to the convention.
    I invited a good amount of guests, yet only about 2 or 3 showed up. Regardless, it was exciting to see at least some people take interest in the SRP’s work who are outside of our group. The feedback from all of the invitees was positive. It was interesting to see all of them looked surprised when they looked at the featured projects. These were fellow students who didn’t get to see their peers often in “science mode”, so to suddenly see them go of on specific tangents while presenting their projects must have been interesting.
    In terms of the keynote presentation, I was hooked from the title. Dr. Pittenger’s field of study was identical to mine. My project this year centered on the executive functioning, which takes place in the frontal lobe. I could envision myself working with Dr. Pittenger on my next research project, which will hopefully be an extension of this year’s project.
    The student presentations were interesting for the most part. I enjoyed the ones that were new, but some of them I’ve already seen multiple times and they didn’t appeal to me anymore. The quality of the project s were fantastic, it’s just that I’ve listened to fellow students present their projects to me already.
    I liked the food and the time length best. The decorations, however, needed improvement. Last year’s decorations were tropical themed and were much better than this years. There weren’t even any brains! The symposium was neurological themed. -.- Regardless, this was an enjoyable experience and I hope to so it next year again.

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  51. The symposium this year was very similar to those in the past. There was a similar schedule, the same food layout, and similar people there. There was a little bit of a bigger turnout this year and the amount of people contributed to an enjoyable evening.
    I helped the symposium to get on its feet by organizing the student and mentor certificates. I prepared and presented Zelun Wang’s farewell slide and also brought some food to the convention.
    I invited a good amount of guests, yet only about 2 or 3 showed up. Regardless, it was exciting to see at least some people take interest in the SRP’s work who are outside of our group. The feedback from all of the invitees was positive. It was interesting to see all of them looked surprised when they looked at the featured projects. These were fellow students who didn’t get to see their peers often in “science mode”, so to suddenly see them go of on specific tangents while presenting their projects must have been interesting.
    In terms of the keynote presentation, I was hooked from the title. Dr. Pittenger’s field of study was identical to mine. My project this year centered on the executive functioning, which takes place in the frontal lobe. I could envision myself working with Dr. Pittenger on my next research project, which will hopefully be an extension of this year’s project.
    The student presentations were interesting for the most part. I enjoyed the ones that were new, but some of them I’ve already seen multiple times and they didn’t appeal to me anymore. The quality of the project s were fantastic, it’s just that I’ve listened to fellow students present their projects to me already.
    I liked the food and the time length best. The decorations, however, needed improvement. Last year’s decorations were tropical themed and were much better than this years. There weren’t even any brains! The symposium was neurological themed. -.- Regardless, this was an enjoyable experience and I hope to so it next year again.

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  52. I have gone to the most previous symposium, and as an incoming freshman, I thought it was pretty cool, but I must say this year’s was better as I had helped with it and participated in it. It was more fun and interactive this year in comparison with last year’s. I helped set up the tables, streamers, nametags, stapling bulletins, taking down streamers, and cleaning up. I invited three people and all of them came. They enjoyed the speakers and thought it was very well organized. I did attend the symposium and found it rather fascinating. I thought that the keynote presentation was well written and presented. I found the topic a great idea to study and work on, as well as being a topic for future work. It was at a very good level and was easily understood. The student presentations were also very good with a range of topics and an even better level of understanding.The students were good at presenting and I epecially liked Jordan's presentaion and study. What I liked best about this year's symposium was the fun sense of community that all the SRP students had. An improvement to be made would be to plan farther ahead the regards to the decorations, which were lacking this year more than last year.
    -Leah

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  53. Vimratha Teepireddy

    1. Compared to the past amity symposiums I attended this was much better. In the past I was not participating in the symposium but I came to view the projects. Also in the past I did not stay the whole period of time, I had to leave half way through.

    2. I helped decorate outside. I also helped make the food project hangings. I also took part in helping to break down.

    3. All the guests that I invited were able to attend. Their remarks were positive. They had enjoyed hearing the guest speaker. They also enjoyed listening to the students from science research explain about their projects.

    4. My overall impression of Dr. Pittenger was that he had an interesting topic that he discussed with us. I enjoyed the results thus far in his experiment. His experiment was a little above my understanding. Though I loved his project and enthusiasm toward his research the field he was studying is not as interesting to me as much as it is to him. Even though I am very interested in neuroscience I was more in the psychological part of his research more.

    5. I thought all the projects of the students were very well thought out and put together. I was more interested in some projects than others.

    6. One thing that I liked the best during the symposium was the guest speaker and the advanced students talking about the seniors. Something we can try to improve for next year is getting the audience more involved in the projects. During many projects the audience did not have a questions or comments.

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  54. I enjoyed this symposium much more than last year's! I feel like it must improve every year! From the food to the keynote speaker to the student presentations, they were all a heap more amazing than last year's. The orginization, I feel, was also better, it seemed to go more smoothly, there was no confusion as to where and when and how people were supposed to do something.
    During class that Friday we helped to organize paper goods, the little recipe project min-posters and collages, corralling napkins and decorating the pie table and candy table. We also wrote out SCIENCE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM many times outside in sidewalk chalk. I brought in a cheese platter, which to my relief was almost empty by the end. I also assisted in cleaning up at the end as I am a freshman!
    Unfortunately, none of my guests were able to attend, however some of my friends' parents and friends came, and I got a chance to talk to them. The were pretty impressed with everyone's work, so good job to everyone!
    N/A
    Dr. Pittenger's presentation was a great presentation, probably my favorite out of last year's symposium and SCISEF (sorry bat-man!), it was really interesting how he applied his knowledge of it being possible to control your heart rate and then putting it to controlling psychological disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was engaging and not boring at all, and he did not use so many technical terms that it was hard to understand!
    The diversity of the topics was alright, but I feel that two technology based projects did become a bit confusing to listen to with all the technical terms, although they were very interesting!
    My favorite part of the symposium had to be Dr. Pittenger's presentation! It is so cool to see this much advance in research of OCD, especially since a very close friend of mine suffers from OCD. To know that people are striving to lessen its symptoms and make its victims live better is truly an amazing feat. An improvement that could be made next year is to set aside a bit more time for the symposium? I remember it running over time last year as well, and if we set aside more time, then there will be no need to rush, which I felt was going on a bit towards the end. But good job to everyone this year!

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  55. Harsha LingareddyJune 5, 2012 at 8:13 PM

    I think that this year's symposium was much better, than the symposium the year before for many reasons and also there were some negatives as well. There were some very good presentations and keynote speaker, but the decorations were not as good as last year. This year there was some banners and that’s pretty much the deco. The food this year was amazing. Additionally, I helped clean up after the symposium after it was done. I brought in an apple pie for the symposium. I had invited 3 guest and they were all able to come. I enjoyed Dr. Pittenger's presentation. I though his ideas about the brain were very interesting. I was able to understand what he was saying since because he gave us a lot of simplified content and background info. The student presentations were amazing. None of the presentations were the same. They were very diverse and cool. They presented with no trouble and gave direct eye contact with the audience. The food at the symposium was great and the presentations were good. We can improve by getting better decoration. You couldn’t tell the theme was neurology at all. We should also follow the schedule because we went over the time by a half an hour.

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  56. Ming Zhao:

    1.) This year, we as students seemed closer to each other than in the past years and therefore made the symposium seem more collected. The atmosphere was lighter and seemed more celebratory versus more uptight in years past. The structure of the symposium was obviously similar to past year's structure and transitions were smooth as usual. With a growing student body every year, the symposiums have certainly increased in liveliness and this year's carried on that trend nicely!

    2.) I assembled the candy raffle.

    3.) None of my family members were able to come unfortunately because they were traveling out of state that very night!

    4.) My overall impression of Dr. Pittenger was that he was very knowledgeable and excited to talk about his research and area of interest. His speech was very dynamic and the topic was certainly extremely significant in today's world. Mental health is certainly a pressing concern that the research world has not ceded enough attention to historically!

    5.) The student projects were very interesting and high-quality. Many of them I was already familiar with, but many of them I was not, and it was exciting to see unfamiliar boards!

    6.) My favorite part of the symposium was hearing the senior tributes. I especially liked the rap for Qi. That was unexpected, bold, and creative, and certainly lightened up the mood in the auditorium!

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  57. 1. I thought this year’s symposium was pretty similar to others in years past. The food was excellent as always, the presentations were interesting and engaging, and the atmosphere in the room was light and fun. Although the program followed the same structure as years past, I enjoyed the night a lot more than previous years, probably because I felt so close to and at home with all my SRP peers over the past four year.

    2. I brought sugar cookies and gave one of the four student presentations.

    3. I invited my parents and mentor, but unfortunately my mentor did not have time to come.

    5. I thought Dr. Pittenger gave an excellent presentation. He is a very engaging, dynamic, and funny speaker, and the topic was very relevant. Mental health is so important in today’s society. Especially after taking AP Psychology this year, I understood the majority of what he was talking about with the different psychological disorders and ways to treat them. Psychological disorders was actually my favorite unit this year, and I would definitely be interested in pursuing research in this area if I had the opportunity.

    6. I liked the diversity of student presentations a lot this year. Instead of four students each presenting their own projects, it was refreshing to hear from the Sikorsky team on their unique experience this year. It was different and a good experience for me to give a four-year overview as well, instead of just one project.

    7. My favorite part was definitely the senior tributes. The closeness of the SRP group really shines through, and the rap for Qi was definitely a highlight!! =) One improvement I would like to see is in attendance – we could work on additional ways to get the word out and perhaps incorporate some audience participation if possible, to attract more people to the symposium.

    -Zizi

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  58. Zelun Wang:

    This year's symposium was fantastic, as were each of the past three years' symposia. Each year is different, so in my opinion there's no real way to compare. I am sorry to say that my contribution was not extremely significant since I left too early for internship: I completed my bio page and brought food, same thing that everyone had to do. However, I did help with portions of the symposium pamphlet. I invited both my parents and my mentor--one of my parents was able to attend and stay the entire night, which was a step up from previous years! My mom was especially impressed by the amount of talent in SRP, especially among the freshmen. I really enjoyed Dr. Pittenger's presentation on his work. I liked that it addressed his specific research question involving biofeedback, but that it was also clear enough for the general public to understand. The topic fascinated me, of course. I think it would even be interesting to be a participant in such a study of the human mind. I felt that the student presentations were all very good--they captured my whole attention. Despite minor tech difficulties, the presentations went rather smoothly and to-the-point. I liked the diversity--ranging from Zizi's senior reflection to Daniel's specific presentation of his year's research project. My favorite part of the symposium was definitely the senior tributes--especially the rap for Qi (I have it on video). We could try to increase attendance to the symposium for the general public if we had fun science demonstrations during intermission--for example, our demoKits.

    Thank you all for an amazing four years. Thank you Ms. Day for believing in us 2012 seniors. I will miss you all!

    Zelun Wang

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