The awards ceremony for the 60th Mercer County Science and Engineering Fair was held last evening at Rider University. This year, St. Gregory the Great Academy had numerous entries in this fair. New this year, all students in Grades 5 thought 8 completed a science project, and all award winning projects at the Academy level were invited to complete at the county level fair. St. Gregory the Great Academy had the most award winning projects in the Elementary Division (Grade 5) and the Junior Division (Grades 6, 7, and 8):




The individual winners are as follows:

Elementary Division (5th grade)

Honorable Mention:
Lance Lienhardt
Patrick Mongan

Meritorious Award:
Joshua Klingele
Matthew Lambert
Jack Micallef
Zachary Posivak

Outstanding Achievement Award:
Patrick Cettina
John Wiegartner


Junior Division (6^th, 7^th, & 8^th grades)

Physical Science Award

Honorable Mention:
Austin Nance

Meritorious Award:
Michael Gomez

Outstanding Achievement Award:
Michael Di Stefano

Superior Achievement Award:
Gene Mongan
Nicholas Posivak

Biological Science Award

Honorable Mention:
Julia Rauscher
Jayson Morelli
Flannery O’Donnell
Nicole Russo

Meritorious Award:
John Boles
Gianna Madaio

Outstanding Achievement Award:
Emma Bennett

Superior Achievement Award:
Nicholas Stewart


The Rider University Awards

Junior Division

Biology:
Nicholas Stewart

Physical Science:
Nicholas Posivak

The Earl Rommel Award

Elementary Division
James Ehring

The Navy and Marine Corp Award
Austin Nance

A very special Honorable Mention Award to Amanda Gill who was inadvertently overlooked in the award ceremony last night. Well done, Amanda! Congratulations!

I am very proud of not only these winners, but of EVERY SGGA STUDENT who put their best effort into completing their science project this year. Quite honestly, the "bar was raised" this year with regard to the requirements for our science projects. Completing a project like this can be frustrating at times, require many revisions, and may not always produce the results that were intended. Despite these challenges, I believe that a process such as this is a positive learning experience. To prepare our students for the challenges that they will face in high school and beyond, we have a responsibility to guide our students to new levels of scholarship. As the old adage goes, "If it was not easy to earn, it was probably worth it; if it was easy to earn, it was probably not worth it."

Congratulations to EVERY STUDENT who gave 100% effort this year. I am tremendously proud of you!

Also, a special thanks to the teachers who guided the Science Fair process this year: Miss Arduini, Miss Armiger, Mrs. Carfaro, and Mrs. Carle! These four teachers are new to their positions this year, yet each did a great job! I look forward to seeing how they guide this process during their "sophomore campaign" next year for the 2014 Science Fair!