Shorecrest and Shorewood students dominate awards in statewide science contest

OLYMPIA -- Washington State Department of Health (DOH) congratulates the winners of the first annual Washington Tracking Network (WTN) Youth Science Contest.

The WTN Youth Science Contest is an opportunity for high school students in Washington state to develop their science and communication skills by engaging with health and environmental data from their own communities.

Winning projects ranged from research papers to poems and were divided into three tracks: 

1. Health Science, 
2. Community Engagement, and 
3. Science Communication. 

Winning projects were selected based on their content, health and equity impact, and presentation. Each track was judged separately by relevant experts within DOH.

Jennifer Sabel, WTN manager, said, “We designed the contest to have a broader appeal than traditional science contests, because we wanted all students to realize how science and equity can relate to their interests.”

Shoreline students dominated the competition, taking almost half of the top awards.

All winning projects can be viewed on the WTN website. Student and school information may be suppressed at student and/or parent request.

Health Science:

Individual Division

• 1st Place - Relationship Between Hiking and Melanoma in Washington State, by Saisha Lakkoju, Bothell High School
• 2nd Place (tie) - Mental Health of Washington State Youth, by Cherie Suzuki, Interlake High School
• 2nd Place (tie) - The Association Between Air Stagnation and Melanoma Incidence in Washington and the Racial Disparity in Melanoma Care, by Jamie K.
• 3rd Place - Connection Between ACEs and Addiction, by Xingjian Ma, Pullman High School

Group Division

• 1st Place - Poverty and Disability in Washington State, by Ankhita Sathanur, Ikshita Sathanur, and Meha Shah, Eastlake High School

• 2nd Place - Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Washington, by Connor Wakefield, Dacotah P., and a student that wishes to not be named, Shorecrest High School

Community Engagement:

Individual Division

• 1st Place - Adolescent Mental Health in Washington, by Minseo Kim, Shorewood High School

• 2nd Place - STIs in Young Adults, by Simon Feist, Saint George's School
• 3rd Place - Get Tested Get Treated, by Rachel Kollarmalil, Liberty High School

Group Division

• 1st Place - The English Support Network, by Ankhita Sathanur, Ikshita Sathanur, and Meha Shah, Eastlake High School
• 2nd Place - A Washington that Works for Everyone: Transportation Reformed, by Christina Jones and Jonnika Kwon, Holy Names Academy

• 3rd Place - Breast Cancer Screening, by Sarah Feng and Gretchen Forsythe, Shorewood High School

Science Communication:

Individual Division

• 1st Place - Secondhand Smoke PSA, by Jonah Chesnut, Shorecrest High School

• 2nd Place - Smoking Causes Lung Cancer PSA, by Jazmin Austria-Ball, Shorecrest High School

Group Division

• 1st Place - Fentanyl Facts, by Ankhita Sathanur, Ikshita Sathanur, and Meha Shah, Eastlake High School

• 2nd Place - Toxic Survival, by Flora Cummings and Lyla Higgins, Shorecrest High School

• 3rd Place - Asthma Science Communication Project for Teens, by Sofia Vila Vignali, Mila, and Bryan C., Shorecrest High School

WTN is a DOH program that makes public health data more accessible. The mission of WTN is to provide health and environmental data and tools, develop partnerships, and inform data-driven policy and programmatic decisions, with the goal of improving health and health equity in Washington.

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