July 11, 2022-- High School North student Katie Culbert, who’s gained attention locally and even nationally for her science fair submissions and work with bees, has had an eventful and remarkably successful past several weeks.
Katie took home first place in the National Celebrate the Mouse Video Essay. The annual competition, which is sponsored by AALAS (American Association for Laboratory Animal Science Foundation) offers the challenge to create an original video essay explaining how you, a family member, friend, or pet have benefited from medical discoveries made possible thanks to work conducted with mice in biomedical research. In addition to the first-place prize, Katie’s video also earned her the Student Choice Award.
Katie also served as the host for AEOP’s (Army Educational Outreach Program) Profiles in STEM. The HSN sophomore interviewed STEM professionals and scientists from across the country including Dr. Bob Solomon, director of the Delaware Valley Science Fair; internationally-recognized psychometrician Dr. Ellen Julian; Mr. Kenneth Dale Small, M.S.; Ms. Pamela Straeter, MS, Veterinary Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb; and Dr. George Matsumoto, senior education and research specialist for the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute in California.
Finally, Katie continued her incredible run of science fair success. The New Jersey Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (NJJSHS) at Rutgers University is an annual research fair that celebrates high school students’ novel investigations in science, engineering, and mathematics. Individual students compete for scholarships and recognition by presenting the results of their original research efforts before a panel of judges and an audience of their peers. The top three oral presenters and top two poster presenters move on to National JSHS. This year, Katie placed first in the poster competition for the NJJSHS and competed nationally in Albuquerque, NM, where she placed third in the Animal Sciences category.
Her performance at the Jersey Shore and Delaware Valley Science Fairs earned Katie a trip to Atlanta for the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), where for the second year in a row she competed against students from the around the world. Her project, which can be viewed here, represents another extraordinary achievement for the young student, who continues to represent High School North and Toms River Regional Schools well.