Pawling Senior Named Siemens Semifinalist
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Local Pawling High School student Dawn Kershaw is among more than 400 semi-finalists named across the United States in this year’s prestigious Siemens Competition, the nation’s premier competition in math, science and technology for high school students. Dawn Kershaw was selected from more than 1600 students who submitted innovative individual and team research projects. Dawn was mentored by Dr. Lawrence Pratt of Medgar Evers College.
“These semi-finalists should be extremely proud of this high- level academic accomplishment,” said David Etzwiler, CEO of the Siemens Foundation. “Their projects represent some of the most noteworthy and exceptional of those submitted and reflected an advanced level of STEM research.” Judging is now taking place to determine who, from this elite group, will now go on to compete in the 6 regional finals, taking place in November. Individual and team winners from the regional competitions advance to the final phase of the contest which takes place in December in Washington, DC where they will compete for top prizes of up to $100,000 in scholarships.
About the Siemens Competition
Launched by the Siemens Foundation in 1999, the Siemens Competition promotes excellence in math, science and technology and is recognized by colleges and universities as the premier math and science research competition in the United States. More than $600,000 in college scholarships are awarded to students annually through the Siemens Competition during regional and national events administered by Discovery Education. The Siemens Competition honors the best and brightest students for their accomplishments in math and science – students who are changing the world for the better. (For more information about the Siemens Competition go to: https://siemenscompetition.discoveryeducation.com/)
About Dawn Kershaw
Senior
Topic Renewable Energy Sources
Project Title: Extracting Ethanol from Food Waste as an Alternative Fuel
Mentor Dr.Lawrence Pratt; Medgar Evers College
Dawn Kershaw is a senior at Pawling High School and is finishing up her third year as a member of the science research class. Dawn has enrolled in many AP courses throughout her academic career, and she plans to continue her rigorous schedule during college. In school, Dawn is also part of National Honor Society, Science Honor Society, and French Honor Society. Afterschool, Dawn is a member of the Girls Varsity Soccer Team, is an involved manager of the Varsity Dance Team, and is also a member of the Varsity Golf team. Regarding the community, Dawn is an Ambassador Girl Scout and is involved in a teen library program created by a few of her peers to benefit the members of our local society.
Dawn’s course of study in science research has changed drastically from year one to year two. Her focus of study switched from studying the effects of climate change on the distribution and breeding patterns of ruby- throated hummingbirds, to the methods and impact of extracting ethanol from food waste to use as fuel. Through difficulties in completing a certain aspect of her mentor’s research on the high school property, Dawn has successfully done a large portion of the research in a setup in her garage.
Ethanolis a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid that is obtained from the fermentation of sugars and starches or by chemical synthesis. The extraction of ethanol from food waste is strongly being looked into by scientists as an alternate fuel that is also greatly helping the environment. This is mainly because if food waste isn’t repurposed in ways such as these it will be put into landfills which allows for its eventual degradation into methane, a greenhouse gas twenty- one times as powerful as carbon dioxide. Because the world’s present economy is highly dependent on the use of fossil fuels which are nonrenewable resources, renewable energy technologies such as the extraction of ethanol from a highly- abundant source will provide an alternative source that could change the planet for centuries. If methods such as the extraction, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation of food waste show to have a high yield of ethanol and are expected to gain a significant amount of money, facilities will be built to house these processes. The results of this experiment reveal that the addition of alpha-amylase produce notable amounts of ethanol. It was found that the food waste samples containing potatoes, corn, rice, and bread lead to larger amounts of extracted ethanol due to their increased amounts of starch. In contrast, the samples containing mostly vegetables were unable to produce as much ethanol as the cellulose present in plant cells don’t contain as much starch, however this could still be profitable in the long run. Overall, steps in the future include improving the procedures used as well as automating these processes to provide an alternative fuel that can used by people worldwide. This could lead to huge changes in the future as fossil fuels will no longer be burned to create fuel while hurting the environment, and instead a previously unused material will be re purposed to benefit both the lifestyles of humans and the environment.
