May 17 - From May 9 through May 15, 4 Marian students competed in the INTEL International Science & Engineering Fair in San Jose, California. The students were Tim Trippel, Michael Hunckler, and the team of Jasmine Podell and Ye Eun Oh. Over 1600 students from 50+ countries participated in the Fair. All four students received a 50% tuition Science Scholarship (renewable all 4 years) from Sierra Nevada College, and a copy of Wolfram Research’s Mathematica for Students software. In addition, Michael Hunckler received a 2nd place award of $1500 from the Air Force Research Laboratory on behalf of the United States Air Force. Congratulations to these outstanding young scientists!

May 5 - Mr. Ken Andrzejewski has just been named the High School Science Teacher of the Year by the Indiana University Bloomington chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.

Founded in 1886, Sigma Xi is the international honor society of research scientists and engineers, with more than 500 chapters at colleges and universities, government laboratories and industry research centers. Membership is by invitation, in recognition of research potential or achievement. Over the years, more than 200 Sigma Xi members have received the Nobel Prize. In addition to publishing American Scientist, the non-profit Society awards hundreds of grants annually to student researchers and sponsors a variety of programs that support science and engineering.
(From Sigma Xi website at http://www.sigmaxi.org/about/overview/index.shtml )

The award includes a cash honorarium and a certificate.

Mr. Andrzejewski’s resume can be found at the Sigma Xi website and highlights include:

Mr. A., as he is referred to by all of his students, has been a teacher at Marian for 25 years. He is the science department chair and teaches Honors Biology I, ACP Honors Biology II, and Advanced Research. He was instrumental in the creation of both the Honors Biology I and the Advanced Research courses.

In his spare time, he coaches the Marian Quiz Bowl team and the Science Olympiad. He is also the chair of the Marian Curriculum Committee.

During the summer months of 2006, 2007, and 2008, Mr. A worked as an assistant lab technician for the Center for Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Notre Dame. In the summer of 2009, he participated in the Research Experience for Teachers at Notre Dame.

He is very proud of the fact that he has mentored 20 students who have advanced to compete in the International Science Fair. He has worked with 40 students who advanced to the state Science Fair. He has mentored over 60 students who have received research grants form the Indiana Academy of Science. He has sent 9 students to the national level of competition in the Junior Academy of Science. He has sponsored two semi-finalists in the Siemens Science Talent Search. In his twelve year as coach for Science Olympiad, his teams have advanced to state competition 7 times!

May 3 - Tim Trippel was awarded 2nd place in the Medicine & Health category at the National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium held this past weekend in Bethesda, MD.
Tim’s category was the largest of the 6 at the Symposium. The second place award included an $8000 scholarship. In addition, Tim is the alternate to attend the International Youth Science Summit in London. Other Marian students who participated as observers at National included Michael Hunckler, Pat Russell and Michelle Baranay.

Mar. 28 - News from the Hoosier State Science & Engineering Fair (HSEF):
5 Marian students competed in the 2010 HSEF, and were extremely successful.
Tim Trippel (who competed in the Finalist division and had already won a spot to compete at the INTEL International Science & Engineering Fair) won a U.S. Army Certificate of Achievement Award, and a 2nd place award from the Indiana Osteopathic Association for best project in health, biology or life sciences.
Aaron Bulger (who competed in the Senior division) was awarded the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, the Purdue Agriculture Award and the U.S. Metric Association Award. In addition, Aaron received the SEFI John and Janet Davis Scholarship which consists of $6000 and a $300 contribution to the teacher and science department. Aaron continues Marian's streak for winning one of the 3 major scholarship awards offered by SEFI at the HSEF.
Ye Eun Oh and Jasmine Podell (competing in the Senior Team division) were awarded the top Team Award, and will be representing Indiana as the only team project from the state at the INTEL International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF). They will join Tim Trippel at the ISEF in San Jose, CA, in May.
Michael Hunckler won an Honorable Mention from the U.S. Army, the award from the Society for Clinical Microbiology, and 1st place in the Senior division. Michael will also be representing the state of Indiana at the INTEL ISEF in San Jose. (Basically, in terms of science competitions, Michael won state.)
This brings Marian's running total of International participants up to 23 in the past 20 years.
This clinches 2009-2010 as Marian's best year ever for Science. Four students heading to the INTEL ISEF, and 4 students heading to the National Science & Humanities Symposium, Emily Lohr's selection as Indiana finalist to BioGENEious and I-SWEEEP, and the Olympiad team's 1st place victory in the Wild Card Tourney and 11th place in State.

Mar. 20 - Marian’s Science Olympiad team competed in the Indiana State Science Olympiad tournament at IU Bloomington today. Marian students won 8 medals, and the team finished 11th in the state. This is Marian’s best showing at State Olympiad. Medal winners were:

Stacie Skwarcan – 2nd place in Fossils, 4th place in Microbe Mission, 5th place in Dynamic Planet
Lance Mulcahey – 2nd place in Fossils, 5th place in Dynamic Planet
Lauren Garatoni – 2nd place in Write It, Do It
Tracy Scott – 2nd place in Write It, Do It
Anna Loeser – 4th place in Microbe Mission

Mar. 13 - The Marian Science Research Team attended the Indiana State Junior Science and Humanities Symposium from 3/11/10 through 3/13/10 at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute.

Twenty-one Marian students participated in the event in various ways. Of the 21 Symposium power point finalists, Marian had 10: Michelle Baranay, Michael Hunckler, Mark Imus, Greg Janowiak, Emily Lohr, Evan Merryman, Pat Russell, Claire Sieradzki, Tim Trippel and Stephanie Van Overberghe.

Marian students took 7 of the top 11 spots at the Symposium. They were:
Claire Sieradzki - 5th alternate
Evan Merryman - 3rd alternate
Mark Imus - 1st alternate

The following have advanced to participate in the poster session at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium to be held in Bethesda, Maryland at the end of April:

Michelle Baranay - 5th place

Pat Russell - 4th place

Michael Hunckler - 3rd place + $1000 scholarship (Michael also won 2nd place in the poster session)

Tim Trippel - 1st place + $2000 scholarship. In addition to participation in the poster session at Nationals, Tim will be presenting his power point in competition at Nationals.

Senior Emily Lohr's project (Silicon Photomultiplier Research and Development: Quantifying New Signal Detection Systems ) has been selected to compete at the I-SWEEEP International Science Olympiad that will be held in Houston, TX, in April 2010.

"I-SWEEEP, the International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering, and Environment) Project Olympiad, is a groundbreaking science fair open to middle and high school students. It is the largest science fair event of its kind world-wide. I-SWEEEP is organized by the Cosmos Foundation, a non-profit educational organization in Houston with a mission to establish college preparatory K-12 schools focusing on math, science, engineering, and computer technologies in an effort to provide a world-class education to the public."

Emily is the first Marian student to enter this competition. The 2010 I-SWEEEP is the third annual project olympiad.

Mar. 6 - The Marian High School Science Olympiad team competed in the Science Olympiad Wild Card Tournament today. The team won 1st place and advances to the State Tournament on 3/20/10.
Individual medal winners were:
Michelle Baranay: 1st place in Environmental Chemistry
Connor Burke: 3rd place in Anatomy & Physiology, 3rd place in Egg-O-Naut
Lauren Garatoni: 1st place in Ecology, 3rd place in Mousetrap Vehicle, 2nd place in Write It Do It
Eddie Hunckler: 2nd place in It's About Time
Michael Hunckler: 2nd place in It's About Time
Samuel Leung: 3rd place in Chemistry Lab
Anna Loeser: 3rd place in Astronomy, 2nd place in Dynamic Planet, 3rd place in Picture This
Lance Mulcahey: 1st place in Environmental Chemistry, 1st place in Fossils
Drew Robinson: 3rd place in Egg-O-Naut
Tracy Scott: 3rd place in Mousetrap Vehicle, 3rd place in Picture This, 2nd place in Write It Do It
Stacie Skwarcan: 3rd place in Cell Biology, 2nd place in Dynamic Planet, 1st place in Ecology, 1st place in Fossils
Kelly Wood: 3rd place in Anatomy & Physiology, 3rd place in Astronomy, 3rd place in Cell Biology, 3rd place in Picture This
Joe Wooley: 3rd place in Chemistry Lab
Additional team members were Patrick Chi and Ye Eun Oh

March 1, 2010 - On Saturday, February 27th , 22 Marian students participated in the Northern Indiana Regional Science & Engineering Fair at the University of Notre Dame. As usual, Marian students did a tremendous job. Here are the results:

Michelle Baranay (’10): 1st place in Chemistry
Chloe Deranek (’11): 1st place in Chemistry; Bethel College Award ($2500 scholarship for 4 years); Bayer Grade Level Award – 11th Grade ($25)
Andrea Freeze (’11): 1st place in Plant Sciences; Bayer Life Sciences Outstanding Senior Project Award ($50)
Katie Hansen (’11): 1st place in Energy & Transportation
Mark Imus (’11): 2nd place in Electrical Engineering
Greg Janowiak (’11): 1st place in Bioengineering; Mu Alpha Theta Award
Samuel Leung (’11): 2nd place in Bioengineering; U.S. Metric Association Senior Award
Dana Lind (’11): 1st place in Chemistry
Emily Lohr (’10): 2nd place in Physics & Astronomy
Meghan Lohr (’11): 3rd place in Animal Sciences; American Society of Quality Control Award ($25)
Evan Merryman (’11): 2nd place in Environmental Sciences
Pat Russell (’11): 2nd place in Medicine & Health; Midwest Cardiovascular Research and Education Foundation Award ($100)
Claire Sieradzki (’10): 1st place in Engineering; Ricoh Sustainable Development Award; Stockholm Junior Water Prize (chance to advance to National contest); U.S. Navy/U.S. Marine Corps Award ($50); American Society of Quality Control ($25); Bethel College Award ($2500 scholarship for 4 years); Bayer Grade Level Award - 12th grade ($25)
Abby Suckow (’11): 1st place in Microbiology
Stephanie Van Overberghe (’11): 1st place in Medicine & Health; South Bend Medical Foundation Award (magazine subscription)
Matt Williams (’11): 3rd place in Electrical Engineering
Joe Wooley (’11): 2nd place in Electrical Engineering; INTEL Excellence in Computer Science Award ($200)

Top awards at the Fair went to:

Team Project: Jasmine Podell (’11) and Ye Eun Oh (’10): 1st place in Chemistry; each)
Aaron Bulger (’10): 1st place in Environmental Sciences; Bayer Life Sciences Top Award ($150); S.E.F.I., Inc. Award (Advancement to the Hoosier Science & Engineering Fair in Indianapolis on March 27th to compete for a chance to go to the INTEL International Science & Engineering Fair in May; $75)
Michael Hunckler (‘11): 2nd place in Biochemistry; Society for in Vitro Biology Award; Sigma Xi, Univ. of Notre Dame - Saint Mary's College Award ($75 and school subscription to the American Scientist); Indiana University School of Medicine - South Bend Award ($50); S.E.F.I., Inc. Award (Advancement to the Hoosier Science & Engineering Fair in Indianapolis on March 27th to compete for a chance to go to the INTEL International Science & Engineering Fair in May; $75)

And the Big Winner:

Tim Trippel (’11): 1st place in Biochemistry; Yale Science & Engineering Association Award; U.S. Army Award; Notre Dame College of Science Dean’s Award ($150); NISMEC Award (Advancement to compete in the INTEL International Science & Engineering Fair in San Jose, California on May 9-14; $50)

Tim will also compete in the Hoosier Science & Engineering Fair.

The Marian Tradition continues, with this year’s group making it 20 International Fair participants and 40 Hoosier Fair participants since 1990.

February 21, 2010 - The Marian Science Olympiad teams competed on February 20 in the St. Joseph's College Regional in Rensselaer, IN. Marian had 2 teams, the Blue team (competition team) and the Silver team (training team). The Marian Blue team received 3rd place overall, and advances to the Wild Card Tournament to be held at Ivy Tech in Lafayette on March 6 where they will compete for a bid to the State Tournament. Individual medal winners in the various events were as follows:
Astronomy: Kelly Wood and Anna Loeser - 2nd place
Chemistry Lab: Sam Leung and Joe Wooley - 4th place
Disease Detectives: Kelly Wood and Ye Oh - 4th place
Dynamic Planet: Anna Loeser and Stacie Skwarcan - 1st place
Ecology: Stacie Skwarcan and Lauren Garatoni - 3rd place
Egg-o-naut: Eddie Hunckler and Andrew Cockman - 2nd place
Environmental Chemistry: Michelle Baranay and Lance Mulcahey - 1st place
Experimental Design: Lance Mulcahey, Michael Hunckler and Drew Robinson - 1st place
Forensics: Eddie Hunckler and Abby Prichard - 3rd place
Fossils: Stacie Skwarcan and Lance Mulcahey - 1st place
It's About Time: Michael Hunckler and Patrick Chi - 1st place; Nate Griggs and Andrew Cockman - 5th place
Microbe Mission: Anna Loeser and Kelly Wood - 2nd place
Mission Possible: Sam Leung and Connor Burke - 4th place
Mousetrap Vehicle: Tracy Scott and Danny Wooley - 1st place
Ornithology: Stacie Skwarcan and Patrick Chi - 3rd place
Physics Lab: Patrick Chi and Lance Mulcahey - 4th place
Protein Modelling: Ye Oh and Jenny Porile - 1st place
Remote Sensing: Drew Robinson and Michelle Baranay - 3rd place; Nate Griggs and Frankee Turco - 4th place
Technical Problem Solving: Sam Leung and Michael Hunckler - 2nd place
Trajectory: Joe Wooley and Patrick Chi - 4th place
Write It, Do It: Jenny Porile and Lauren Garatoni - 1st place

February 21, 2010 - The 22 members of the 2009-2010 Marian Research class will be attending the Indiana Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute on March 11-13. This year, 10 of the 22 have been chosen to present their research in the Symposium portion of the event. This is the largest number of presenters Marian has ever had.
The presenters are:
Michelle Baranay ('10)
Michael Hunckler ('11)
Mark Imus ('11)
Greg Janowiak ('11)
Emily Lohr ('10)
Evan Merryman ('11)
Pat Russell ('11)
Claire Sieradzki ('10)
Tim Trippel ('11)
Stephanie Van Overberghe ('11)

February 26, 2010 - Marian Senior and 2nd year research student, Emily Lohr, has been chosen as one of two Indiana State Finalists in the 2010 sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge. Emily, with her project “Silicon Photomultplier (SiPM) Research and Development: Quantifying New Detection Systems”, will represent the state of Indiana at the Midwest Regional BioGENEius Competition in Minneapolis, MN on March 5. There, she will compete against representatives from the states of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota to advance to the 2010 sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge in Chicago on May 2-4. Emily began working on her project during the summer of 2009 as Marian’s student representative to the Notre Dame QuarkNet program. The BioGENEius competition is sponsored by the Biotechnology Institute whose mission is to “engage, excite and educate the public, particularly young people, about biotechnology and its immense potential for solving human health, food and environmental problems.” “Under the Institute's direction, the sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge is an annual competition for high school students that recognizes outstanding research in biotechnology.”

December 16, 2009 - The following Advanced Research students have been awarded Junior Research Grants from the Indiana Academy of Science:

Michelle Baranay - $300
Aaron Bulger - $254
Chloe Deranek - $218
Andrea Freeze - $45
Katie Hansen - $134
Michael Hunckler- $300
Mark Imus - $300
Greg Janowiak- $300
Samuel Leung - $300
Dana Lind -$300
Emily Lohr - $300
Evan Merryman -$295
Yae Eun Oh -$150
Jasmine Podell -$150
Claire Sieradzki - $300
Abby Suckow -$285
Tim Trippel - $99
Stephanie Van Overberghe - $300

This is a total of $4330 in grants. Unless changes were made this year, the Academy has a budget of $5000 for Junior Research Grants, so we got almost all of it!

December 3, 2009 - The research abstracts of Claire Sieradzki (‘10), Aaron Bulger (’10) and graduate Colin Leader (’09) have been published in the Fall 2009 issue of The Hoosier Science Teacher. This research was from last year’s Indiana Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.

October 16, 2009 - Congratulations to Claire Sieradzki (’10) and Aaron Bulger (’10) who were chosen as two of the top 10 candidates to compete for the Indiana Junior Academy of Science Outstanding Junior Scientist Competition.  Also congratulations to Emily Lohr (‘10) who was chosen as one of the top 12 Research paper presenters for the Junior Academy competition.  These 3 seniors will travel to IU Bloomington on November 9 along with a contingent of Marian science students to take part in this competition.