Members of the Society of Plastics Engineers Cleveland

Your Education Committee again attended the Northeast Ohio Science and Engineering Fair (NEOSEF) this year to evaluate and issue awards for polymers and plastics related projects.

We selected and evaluated 8 projects from the list. We then interviewed and discussed the projects with the students to understand their activities, motivations, outcomes, and future intentions. Based on our discussions and evaluations we chose three projects worthy of awards.

We find this project to be rewarding to the kids, the community, the various industries, and ourselves. We feel this helps foster the youth into industries and fields that are in need of continuous innovation and progress, and the encouragement that our conversations might be all that is necessary to cement their opinion of the polymers world enough to consider joining us in the world of plastics in the future.

We awarded certificates to the 3 winners and will issue three $100 prizes to the winners at our banquet in May. Our winners were:

Anne Rea of St. Vincent-St. Mary (11-12 grade) with “The Effects of Liquid Media Environment on Bacterial Cellulose Production”

Jullian Medvecky of Mentor High School (11-12 grade) with “Comparing the Amount of Bacteria and Heavy Metals in Two Types of Artificial Turf Infill”

Julia Bagne of St. Dominic Elementary (7-8 grade) with “What’s the Rap with Food Wrap?”

Please join us in recognizing these winners with such strong and enlightening projects.”

Ron Raleigh – Education Committee Chairman

Dennis Meade – Education Committee