Good News About Polk County Public Schools

Two Polk students are preparing to compete at the Intel International Science And Engineering Fair held May 8 to 13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California, http://www.societyforscience.org/isef.

The students are Trevor Monroe, a Lakeland resident and senior at Winter Haven’s Chain of Lakes High and Kirstie Tandberg, a Winter Haven resident and sophomore at Eagle Lake’s Lake Region High. They are among approximately 1,600 high school students from nearly 60 countries, regions and territories selected to participate.  The Polk students will compete for awards that includes a top prize of $75,000.

Both students qualified for the Intel event by winning Best of Show Awards at the Polk Regional Science And Engineering Fair in January.

Both Trevor and Kirstie also won awards at the 56^th Annual State Science And Engineering Fair held last month  in Orlando,  http://www.polk-fl.net/news/newsreleases/040811.htm. They will compete in Los Angeles with their award-winning projects from the Polk and state events.

Trevor’s project is in the engineering genre and is titled “Boosting Central Heat/Air Conditioning Efficiency Through Evaporative Cooling.” He won an honorable mention award at the state event.  His advisor on the project is teacher Suzanne Halverson.

Kirstie’s project is in the environmental sciences genre and is titled “ Cacti Mucilage And Reverse Osmosis Membranes: A Solution For Water’s Phosphate Problem.” At the state event, she won both an honorable mention award and a $75 award from the Heartland Regional Science And Engineering Fair. Her advisor on the project is teacher Lisa Weeks.

2011 was the second consecutive year that Kirstie competed at the state event and the first year she won an award there. As a Lake Region freshman in 2010, Kirstie competed at the states in the environmental sciences category with her project “Cacti For Clean Water…..A Continuation.”