Congratulations to inspired seventh grade scientists Ksenia Medvedeva, Lily Hernandez and Will Pramanik, for entering projects in the 27th annual Santa Cruz County Science and Engineering Fair! Pramanik’s project, ‘Momentum vs. Oscillators with Multiple Time Frames,’ won Third Place in the Mathematics and Computer Science, Junior Division (6th-8th grade), and earned him an invitation to participate in the 64th annual California State Science Fair in May!
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‘For my project I used the stock market and created programs to improve the results of different, well-known indicators, and then tested those programs to determine whether momentum indicators or oscillators were better,’ Will explained. ‘I developed this project because I think young people who can’t otherwise afford to go to college, could use this information and trading system to earn money for college.
‘From my results I concluded that momentum indicators are better during trending markets and oscillators are better during non-trending markets. In the future I would like to try using multiple indicators and test my current systems on real stocks. Once I improve my system, I would like to try trading it live!’
Medvedeva and Hernandez were awarded a Project of Merit in Animal Sciences, Junior Division for ‘Le Chicks 2,’ their study comparing dry and traditional wet incubation methods.
‘Last year, our first project on hatching chicks didn’t really have a hypothesis,’ explained Medvedeva. ‘This year we made a hypothesis based on our previous experiences and discoveries. Our hypothesis asked ‘Does humidity have a role in the hatch rate when hatching chicks’? We were interested in learning more about what affects the hatch rate and what doesn’t.’The girls ran two incubators, one with traditional settings and the other a dry incubator. The dry incubator resulted in a 100% hatch. With the wet incubation method, they experienced the same problems as they had the previous year, with few chicks developing normally and then dying right before they were to hatch.
All three students received encouraging feedback from Fair judges and were encourage to participate again next year.
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Photos by Maureen Pramanik and Anna Medvedeva
Contact: Leigh Ann Clifton, Marketing & Communications,
Nestled among the redwoods on 355 mountaintop acres, Mount Madonna is a safe and nurturing college-preparatory school that supports students in becoming caring, self-aware and articulate critical thinkers, who are prepared to meet challenges with perseverance, creativity and integrity. The CAIS and WASC accredited program emphasizes academic excellence, creative self-expression and positive character development. Located on Summit Road between Gilroy and Watsonville.
