Hot Springs students regional finalists in STEM competition

William Duke and Nicolas Nahas, students at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs, were among the regional finalists in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, according to a recent press release from the Siemens Foundation.

The pair focused their project on detecting the diversity of coral species at Coral Gardens, Belize, using video transects. The group determined that 65% of hard coral cover was A. cervicornis. The live coral cover and algal cover were found to be 54% and 27%, respectively.

“These results show possible improvement at the site over the live coral coverage reported by a previous study, as well as a higher ratio of live coral cover to algal cover than was previously reported for nearby Hol Chan Marine Protected Area (MPA),” the pair wrote in their abstract, adding, “This higher ratio could result from a strategic location at a dip in the barrier reef as well as lower predatory fish populations and thus greater herbivory outside of the MPA.”

The students presented their research Nov. 18-19 to a panel of judges at the University of Texas at Austin, host of the Region Two Finals.

While Duke and Nahas’ placement will not advance them to the national competition in Washington, D.C., it did earn the pair a $1,000 scholarship.

Of the competitors, David Etzwiler, CEO of the Siemens Foundation, said he was impressed “with the level of expertise they’ve acquired on their topics.”

“The creativity and vision of these young researchers give us great hope for the future of the scientific enterprise,” he added.

The Siemens Competition, launched in 1999 by the Siemens Foundation, increases access to higher education for students who are gifted in STEM. Administered by Discovery Education, the competition “recognizes and builds a strong pipeline for the nation’s most promising scientists, engineers and mathematicians,” the release stated.

For more on the projects and the winners, click here.