Eitan Paul, a freshman at High School South, is the 2005 winner of the Young Naturalist Competition from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Paul received the honor for his essay, “Impact Study of Grovers Mill Pond and Dam Reconstruction on Big Bear Brook.” He will attend the spring awards ceremony in New York City.
This is the second year that ninth grade honors biology students from the school district entered the Young Naturalist Awards Competition. Faculty members Kate Princiotta and Meenakshi Bhattacharya incorporated the competition into the fall curriculum of honors biology as one of two independent studies for the year.
Projects ranged from analyzing the biodiversity of nearby waterways to studying the frequency of eggs hatched by backyard chickens. The competition enabled students to follow a set of guidelines specified by the Natural History Museum. Instead of the traditional science lab report, students were required to write an essay and were judged on both the originality and focus of their work and the quality of their writing.
