Science students from Manlius Pebble Hill School win medals in competition

Olivia Sheppard, of Skaneateles, and Emerson Czerwinski Burkard, of Fayetteville, brought home a few souvenirs from their recent trip to SUNY Oswego’s Genius Olympiad — matching silver medals and a pair of special science awards.

The two students, who will both will be juniors at Manlius Pebble Hill School this fall, competed in the international science fair June 17 to 20 that brought together 330 high school students from 44 nations to present solutions to environmental problems.

Projects in the third annual Genius Olympiad addressed issues in the categories of ecology and biodiversity, resources and energy, human ecology, and environmental quality.

Sheppard’s project — “Alternative Energy: Using Nanotechnology to Transfer Energy between Bioluminescent Firefly Proteins and Fluorescent Quantum Rods” — and Czerwinski Burkard’s project — “Application of Renewable Wind Energy to Improve Aircraft Efficiency” — were entered in the resource and energy category of the competition. Both projects won a silver medal. Both also earned one of the five special awards that Genius Olympiad sponsor SRC Inc. presented to the top science projects in the competition.