Science Fair: The Series (2023) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Here we are at
the Regeneron ISEF Grand Award Ceremony.
You have persevered with your studies
and research.
And shown tremendous grit
in the face of insurmountable odds.
Ladies and gentlemen,
honored guests and finalists
the time has come.
30 million students.
78 countries.
Eight million dollars in cash and prizes.
Top prize is 75,000 dollars.
Second prize, 50,000 dollars.
Straight cash.
I want to win something.
I don't wanna pay for college.
If someone thinks
that high school science fairs
are just about volcanoes
they've never been to a science fair.
The International Science
and Engineering Fair
is the biggest high school science fair
in the world.
It is high school students
doing real research
that will change the world.
-My project is on global warming.
-Human ovarian cancer cells.
Hurricane formation.
You have literally the best
from each country all here at ISEF.
It's like the Olympics of science fair.
Brazil's in the house!
This series follows students
from around the world
as they compete for a spot
at the mother of all science fairs.
Going to ISEF,
it's been my dream since I was little.
If we win the spot to ISEF,
we're going to Atlanta
- We're going to Atlanta.
- and we are partying.
Is it about
the science or the partying?
- Both.
- Both. Why not?
One win will change
their lives forever.
If you win ISEF,
it's kind of like winning
the Nobel Prize as a kid.
And the winner
Kids and parents of
the Jericho School District have spoken,
and so have their
academic achievements.
Earning Jericho the top spot,
number one in the nation,
in the Niche
Best School District Annual Rankings.
Welcome back.
So, there's a couple of things
that we just need to go over,
and hopefully,
you listened, and you prepared,
and didn't waste the summer
because for these next few months,
you're going to feel tortured.
I know that almost
all of you would love to win ISEF,
but it's not gonna be easy.
Real talk.
If I can't push you to be excellent,
I can't expect you to win.
And I expect you to win.
A Long Island teacher
is in the spotlight
after producing science superstars
for ten years and counting.
Word about
the school district
has spread around the world,
and it's experienced a huge surge
recently in international students.
When I came to Jericho,
a big reason of why we moved here
is because we knew
about the research program.
I'm pretty sure
it's 'cause of the research program.
Dr. McCalla for sure.
Dr. McCalla and the Jericho Science
Research Program.
I've been at Jericho for 14 years.
And when I got here,
we just began winning.
We won literally every competition
that is out there for science,
research high school students.
We have state-of-the-art equipment.
We have a biosafety cabinet.
We have incubators.
A lot that you find
in university settings.
But I do not feel that those resources
are the only reason why we're successful.
We're successful because we have
a relentless pursuit of excellence here.
Jericho is doing graduate student research
that will change the world.
And we do plan on trying to win,
so get ready.
The road to the International
Science and Engineering Fair
begins at local science fairs.
At the regional level,
top-place finishers can earn
one of a limited number
of spots directly to ISEF.
I would probably cry
if I got a bid to ISEF.
We absolutely have to place.
We'd love to move on.
Students who make it
to the State Science Fair
have one final shot to qualify for ISEF.
But at that level,
the competition is even more intense.
A lot of them think they have no chance.
And that's one of the neatest things,
is seeing the look on their face when they
realize they're actually going to ISEF.
No more talking.
Take the sleeves as you need the sleeves.
I need you to work. Focus, Miss Kim.
Not every student can go to ISEF.
You gotta be absolutely the best.
We only have three months
before local fairs.
So, when it comes to us
practicing and preparing,
I'm a little bit relentless.
I'm gonna go in order of receipt.
Right now, I have Leo, then Kevin,
then Ethan, then Samay,
then Andrew, then Emily.
Prior to joining
the science research program,
I heard a lot of rumors that people said
Dr. McCalla is very strict.
Is this your best version, Leo?
Like, I made everything
Do I have the final version
in my email?
- No.
- Get out.
Well Okay.
I know, like, she means well.
She produces winners.
- Next, Kevin.
- What's up?
- Is this the best version?
- Yes.
Kevin works very hard,
and he's very smart.
He is the most confident of the students
I currently am working with.
Can we move this over
just a tad so I can make this one line?
-Can I?
-No.
-Okay.
-Just tell me.
-Just highlight it all and pull it over.
-Click.
He believes in himself,
and his work is phenomenal
and can change how we look at cancers.
Each student chooses
their own project.
They'll spend the next five months
researching and refining it
in hopes of making it to ISEF.
We foster their passion.
It's always something
that they're interested in.
If they don't love it,
I don't want to do it.
If I'm writing contractions here,
should I just write Micros
My project focuses on identifying
genetic causes of cancer.
Particularly, I'm looking at sequences
in DNA that repeat
and I've been characterizing
and identifying them
in 10 different cancer types.
It's a phenomenal project,
but it's so complicated.
And you can't make it to ISEF
if you can't sell it well.
We know all the science.
The rest of it
is just selling it to the judge.
I need an aspirin.
I need a nap, and I have a headache.
All right, I'm done.
La la la la la la, la la la la la la la
La la la la la la ♪
We are at Dominican Convent Harare.
This is my school.
It's the oldest school in the country,
and it's all girls.
This is the chemistry lab.
So, everyone gets one of these tubs
to work with whenever they're working
on the experiments,
and it was really cool.
It's really cool carrying this.
I I feels like you're so in charge
carrying one of these to your desk.
That microscope made me sure
I wanted to do sciences my whole life.
It was so cool. It still is!
And there's a really cool storeroom there,
I don't know if it's open,
but with all the chemicals.
This just makes me so excited.
You have no idea.
My other school was way smaller than this.
I hadn't been exposed
to this much variety.
So, when I got here, I was
I guess you can say starstruck
by the chemicals.
This is just too cool really.
So, Balloon A is air,
and Balloon B is water.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
I am Knowledge Chikundi, the founder
and director of the Zimbabwe Science Fair.
So, see, water, water is magic.
When I grew up,
we didn't have a science fair
in the country.
We still have a long way to go,
but we now have young scientists
in Zimbabwe,
and we want to bring them to ISEF
to compete with others.
Even if they don't make it to ISEF,
doing science,
they'll grow up with a scientific mind,
and that's one of the best way
to build a great future
for our country and the world.
There are practical differences
between students from my country
and students from other countries.
The resources
that we're exposed to are different.
Electricity, water supply.
So, most of the projects that
the Zimbabwean delegation sends
are very personal.
For me, it was the fuel crisis
that was going on in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is currently experiencing
fuel shortages.
Long, winding queues
are visible at most fuel stations
while most are completely empty.
I'd been at a fuel queue
with my mother for six hours.
It was a brutal, brutal experience.
And I was now looking at our
fuel sources here in Zimbabwe,
and I discovered that we blend our fuel
with imported fuels.
And so, our fuel that we make is ethanol,
and we get that from sugarcane.
So, the first time I came here,
I ran straight for a reed plant,
thinking it was sugar cane.
And my aunt was like, no, no, no, no, no.
That's not sugar cane. That's a reed.
And it was crazy because the reed
looked just like the sugar cane.
So, I started thinking,
can't we use them
for ethanol production as well?
And these reeds are just everywhere
versus the sugar cane.
So, I looked at these reeds,
and I tested them for sucrose,
which is essential for ethanol production.
And I found that the reed extract
contained a higher concentration.
So, there was sucrose present
in the reed extract.
And that meant these reeds
could be used to generate ethanol
just like the sugar cane.
So, I'm trying to work on a safer fuel
and a cheaper fuel for Zimbabwe.
But it's not yet finished.
There's so many things I need to go over.
I need to explore.
We have a long way to go
before my project is ready
to present at the fair.
Now I was born to be just what I am ♪
A fast drivin' man ♪
Well, I'm a smooth ridin' ♪
A no slidin', a fast drivin' man ♪
I'm definitely a little bit
of an outcast, I would say.
But I want to change the world
with new technology.
I wanna advance
the technologies that we have.
This is my drift trike that I made.
I took a water pump motor,
and I put it on this whole frame I made
with some trailer tires,
and I attached it to a bicycle.
It goes about 45,
50 miles an hour.
I can do burnouts
and donuts and different tricks on it.
With Einstein's
Theory of Relativity, time is relative.
Meaning that faster moving objects
can travel through time faster
than everything else.
So, I started to think
of maybe how you could do that.
For my science fair project
Uh no, currently I'm not building
a time machine. My dad has a DeLorean.
That would
that would be interesting.
Maybe in the future.
Back to the Future.
For my science fair project,
I made a new design of electric motor
for use in electric cars.
The whole reason for adopting electric
vehicles and electric cars
is because we're trying
to be more sustainable.
But the problem
is that many of these technologies,
they use rare earth materials
like neodymium and dysprosium.
These are very expensive elements.
They're very bad
for the environment to mine.
Not only does my design
not have rare earth materials,
but it's also very high-performing.
One coil down, 95 to go.
And so, looking at a bigger picture,
we can be much more sustainable
and preserve how we live indefinitely.
My dad does AC repair.
He's a general contractor,
so he knows a thing or two
about building things.
I'd bring him old air conditioning.
Oh, when Robert
was probably six years old,
-he was out there helping me.
-Oh, yeah.
These are different pieces
that I got
from old air conditioning motors.
Ow! Oh, that hurt.
Ever since I was little,
I've always been building bigger
and better machines over the years.
Early on, like even pre-K,
he was always coming up
with ideas to build things.
This was a new design
of wheel that I made.
Um, I was probably, like,
maybe seven or eight at the time.
A lot of kids get toys
for Christmas,
and they wait for their dad
to put it together.
He always knew
how to put it together himself.
I've wanted to be an engineer
pretty much since I knew
what an engineer was.
And I came across an article where
a team of MIT students made this robot.
It's like a four-legged,
like a cheetah kind of robot.
That's a lot of the reason why
I started doing science fairs
because that's where I want to go.
I want to I want to do stuff like that.
Winning a competition like ISEF,
I think that would be hugely beneficial
for applying to MIT, of course.
And, you know, to be able to do that
I think would be it would be the dream.
While students like Robert
are gearing up
for regional and state-level fairs.
In Jericho, the kids must first survive
an internal tryout.
You're gonna be fine.
You guys are, like, so smart.
In order to qualify for ISEF,
you have to win first place
at your regional or state fair.
But at Jericho,
we're super-duper competitive,
so not only do we have to worry about,
like, the regional and state level
in order to get to ISEF,
we have like an in-school round, too,
to get a spot
to even compete at Regionals or State.
So, we have to compete amongst ourselves.
I'm obviously nervous.
The last few days have been, like, a lot.
I was up 'til, like, 2:30 working on this,
which is why
she said I looked kind of dead.
I never feel 100 percent ever.
I'm so scared,
but we're just gonna see what happens.
There's only 10 spots,
and I think 14 people presented,
so I think four people are gonna get cut.
I hope that's not me.
It might be.
Today is our regional
and statewide tryouts
for the International Science
and Engineering Fair.
The stakes are high only
because we have a limited number of spots.
There's pressure.
Guys, they have seven minute to present.
I told them that.
We have such a tight schedule,
but I really rather you guys
- get the questions.
- All right.
I have teachers come in
and help me judge.
So, at the end of today,
we'll know the 10 students
who are selected to participate.
All right, we gotta move.
Let the games begin.
- You ready? Let's go.
- Can I say no?
I'm the only sophomore
in my class,
and everyone else is juniors.
Today, I will be discussing the use
of tectonics in climate and reconstructing
the modeling of the Western United States.
I created a computerized diagnostic system
for cardiac arrhythmias.
You have so many of these people
trying to compete for a spot,
and they're so smart.
Like, you have Samay,
who's crazy smart with computers.
Today, I'll be talking about applying
spatial-temporal attention to identify
distracted and drowsy driving
with vision transformers.
There are two main methods,
and first method is you start
with the embedded patches,
which is essentially a matrix,
and then you pass it on to normalization
and then to multi-head attention.
I don't want to compete with them,
but it is what it is.
Welcome to Jericho.
When I first came to Jericho
in elementary school,
my English was really bad.
My family's Thai.
We predominantly speak Thai.
I remember all of the teasing,
and I used to get called a lot
of derogatory things.
They're like, "She doesn't seem smart,"
and that's why I was so stressed.
I was like,
I need to prove myself to people.
That group of people
made me develop a fear,
like, a really big fear of failure.
Like, I was so scared to fail
'cause I was so scared
I was going to be mocked for it.
- Natasha.
- Yes.
Let's go, lovey.
- Good luck.
- Hi.
Good afternoon.
My name is Natasha Kulviwat,
and today, I'm here to discuss
my passion
for adolescent suicide research.
I lost my close friend to suicide,
and this is one of the many reasons
that has motivated me
to conduct research in this field.
There's not a lot of
research done on teenage suicide,
and I think that that kind of shocked her.
And with that, I think she started saying,
"Okay, how can I now
ask a question
that's gonna benefit people?"
Her project's on the second leading cause
of why adolescents die.
So right now, there's no current benchmark
or criteria for release
after attempting suicide.
That's when suicide attempts,
suicide ideation is at its highest.
So, we need to predict whether or not
the individual should be released.
My project is an app
to assess suicide ideations.
My work, I hope,
that it has some sort of contributions
to society in the future.
Even if I don't win anything, I know it's
gonna be worth it because I know,
like, this research is really good.
Studies finding identify the self-signal
task as an objective marker
that is effective,
non-invasive,
has a low-cost implementation
as well as a practical application
and can accurately determine
short-term suicide ideation. Thank you.
She's phenomenal.
Oh, I wasn't supposed to say that.
Um Sorry.
I did it! I didn't say one "um."
- How was it?
- Oh, my God.
It was really good.
Oh, my God!
Like that moment that I went in there,
I've been dreaming of that since
I was nine years old. I'm not even joking.
I know my face is really a good read.
Like, I
-I don't know.
-I know. I know.
-I have no poker face.
-Well, I can't see your face.
Yeah, I don't know
how a kid gets that good at that age.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Kevin Zhu,
and today, I will be presenting
my findings on the extent
of recurrent repeat contractions
across 10 human cancer types.
Kevin Kevin is Kevin.
Any test you give him,
he'll score 100 on.
He'll find a way to score 101 somehow.
That's the type of person he is.
Literature has previously identified
that replication errors are responsible
for two-thirds of all mutations
in human cancers.
But the problem is that these contractions
lack any sort of exploration
or examination in cancer
because of inter-tumor heterogeneities.
This leads into scenarios
where we have a normally
repetitive sequence,
undergo a deletion or contraction.
Around 80% of
those candidate contractions
Evaluate the distribution
of contractions across the genome.
We want to look at the distributions
that we might have.
First, associating
those contraction load signs
Followed a bi-modal distribution
Energetic regions,
the exons, the introns
Located closer
to those cis-regulatory elements
correlated with these, uh, contractions.
It plays a crucial part
in the actual detection
for both targeted diagnostics
and therapeutics.
It could set the stage for a set,
a wave of new cancer medicines
to hopefully one day,
uh, lead our way to a cure for cancer.
Thank you.
Okay, um
It was very different, Kevin.
- Yeah. I
- Yeah, I had a hard time
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
The problem was
there's so much content with this.
I wanted to make it
as clear as possible for you guys.
But I'm sorry about that.
Um
I think that I went too much left
and right, and not on the main points,
and because of that,
I don't think that the teachers
actually understood
what the main points of my project were.
- Why did he panic like that?
- I'm done.
Like, changed it
at the last minute.
He he emailed me at like 11:30.
"I'm sorry for reaching out so late,
but can I change, like, my presentation?
It was only one thing."
No!
And I said, "One thing? Sure."
- Right.
- That was the whole
-presentation. Like
-Yeah!
- what do you want me to do?
- That's Kevin.
He has been stressed about this.
I kind of realized that
there were a lot of stuff
that I didn't need to put in
or there were a lot of stuff
that I thought could be left out,
so that my story could be more coherent.
Um. And so, I did a few changes to it.
You just have to own it,
and I tried my best to. But, yeah.
My parents immigrated to the U.S.
and they sacrificed a lot for me
to be able to have the education,
have the resources,
have the community around me.
And honestly, I don't have
much excuse to not do well.
We have 17 8.66. He's 9.66. He's 8.66.
We only have ten spots,
and all of the projects are really good.
I know that if I mess this up,
I mess up the whole rest of the year.
Like, this dictates
whether or not we go to ISEF.
I stress out the rest of the night.
I'll eventually write their names
on the list,
and I'll post it on the window,
and by the morning,
they'll know if they have a spot.
Nice. I made it. Let's go.
-Yeah, she's not in the Oh!
-No, it's like
It's nice to get into something.
All right. That's a that's a relief.
I bombed my physics test for this.
It's my name. Right there.
Yeah, it's really good.
I'm gonna take a picture.
All right, I have to send it
to my parents.
So, I'm the last one. Lottery.
I think he does work hard.
I think he's smart.
He doesn't have a bad project.
He just can't sell it.
Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
Ooh, ay ♪
Drelli, riddle me that ♪
I ain't got time to play
or just sit and relax ♪
They gonna try to throw shots
but I'm turnt to the max ♪
I've been swimming competitively
since I was six.
Swimming has always been a safe place.
I didn't have a lot of friends,
so swimming was a place where
I could kick off the wall really hard
and swim as hard
as I possibly could without, like,
taking my rage out on somebody.
Run the town ♪
They can't believe it ♪
But mine, mine, mine
ain't backing down ♪
And then, like,
one day I was talking about,
like, swimming and we got on the topic
of Olympics,
and I found a bunch of controversies
surrounding the uniforms
that men and women were wearing,
and how women were being treated
differently than men with smaller uniforms
than men were wearing.
And then I was, like,
"Wait." My dad has this rule in the house,
"See a problem. Fix a problem."
I decided to see if I could mathematically
test the opinion that female athletes
were wearing less clothing
than their male counterparts.
I traced out the uniform with software
and turned all of my uniforms
into data sets, and then I compared
that data with each other
using statistical analysis.
I found out that women were wearing
20 to 60 percent less clothing than men.
I want to change social norms
using science,
and I realized that science fair
was a perfect way
to put that frustration into action.
Okay, once you guys set
So now we can get Olivia. Olivia?
- What?
- Come on.
But I'm doing my homework.
Every family has their own thing.
You know, they always have that, like,
"Oh, we're, like, dog people."
Okay.
We're science people.
As you get tired
and the judging day goes on,
you actually need to get more and more
enthusiastic because the judge
is also a human being,
and they will get tired as well.
- So, you need to, like, really amp it up.
- Really?
Andy's gone to ISEF once,
and my sister Clara went
to ISEF three years.
First place
in Biomedical Engineering, Clara Wagner.
When a judge walks by, just, like,
nod at them, smile, say hello.
Treat them like a real human being.
- Olivia
- Olivia
- Sorry.
- Really? Come on.
I'm just burping again.
I'm sorry.
What is it with the burping?
I don't know. I don't
I've been really like,
gassy with my burping lately,
and I don't know why.
She's been here
three times.
Why don't you listen
to what she has to say?
You don't have to do
what I recommend.
You can do whatever you want.
You're your own person.
Olivia!
Stop!
That whole record is insane
and crazy,
and I don't know if I'll ever do it.
I mean, I could. That'd be kind of cool.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we are competitive.
What do you think? We're the Wagners.
How I tested this project
was using a protocol that I designed
which included
a Wilcoxon signed-rank analysis test.
Um And that was part of
This needs to be practiced.
You know it all.
Get it back in your brain
and re-present it to me.
And then have it smooth like chocolate.
Like, sweet. Okay?
With regional and state fairs
right around the corner,
these young scientists must make sure
their projects are in top shape
if they want
to keep their ISEF dreams alive.
I'm trying to see which one has the most
sap at the moment.
I feel a lot of pressure for ISEF.
I want to pave the way
for many young Zimbabwean scientists
to come up,
especially young Zimbabwean girls.
Electric motors
are very complicated machines.
I made the first version.
It didn't really work out that well.
Kept making new versions,
trying to improve it.
By the 13th motor, I thought,
"Okay, this one has to work.
I have fixed everything
that could possibly go wrong."
I wired it up, and it melted.
It's probably like 50 to 60-ish pages.
Like, what does all my data look like?
What do we know about the data set?
There's usually a list of kids who are
going to these in-person competitions.
So, I go one by one, and I stalk
the children in my category
to learn more
about their project's limitations.
So, I'm a psychopath.
But it's okay.
As I said,
50% the science, 50% the sell.
So, part of your job is to make sure
that they see your enthusiasm,
your respect of the science,
and your love of it. Sell that.
You got 15 minutes to impress them.
You got to impress them
from beginning to end, or you can't win.
'Cause there's other kids out
there doing it. Trust and believe.
There are kids out there
that are impressive,
that probably should not beat you
because you're smart, and you know it.
So, practice tonight
until you get it right.
Good morning, Jericho High School.
Good luck to Dr. McCalla
and the science research students.
Okay, everybody is responsible
for making sure their board is in the box.
Does everybody have their forms?
- Natasha?
- Yeah.
- Natalia?
- Yeah?
- Samay?
- Yup.
Okay, we're good.
- One!
- Two!
- Three!
- Four!
Kevin is not going
to the New York State Fair.
He did not make it past round one.
The sell of my project
was not amazing.
All the data was there, but I didn't know
how to communicate it properly.
All I have to do now is to improve.
The Zimbabwe Science Fair
is the only fair in the country
where you can qualify for ISEF.
171 projects compete
for just eight ISEF spots.
I wouldn't say I'm competitive,
but if it's something
like the ISEF journey,
if it's something that has to open doors,
if it's something
that has to change something,
then I will pour out everything
on that definitely.
Good morning, finalists.
We're wishing that you all
have a very good day.
It's gonna be a long day.
Good luck, everyone.
All the projects at states
are very high level.
I feel good about my presentation,
but the competition is,
like, really steep.
Some of the projects here
are just amazing.
My goal here is to present my research,
show the amount of work
I put into the project.
Then, you know, of course,
I always aim to win,
so that would be nice.
- Olivia, you are A, so 8:30.
- So, 8:30 I have to be in there?
Yup.
Get your brain in the right place.
My sister is obviously
this big role model for me,
but it's also a little scary going
into science fair with her
and her big, like, career and everything.
- I have dyslexia, and I also have ADHD.
- And, um Sorry.
I never really thought I would be
as good as my sister or, like,
anyone in my family.
So, I hope that somehow, I can show
that I can do as well as she can
or that I'm just as good as she is.
Whoo.
When Jericho walks in,
it's like, "Oh, God, Jericho's here."
They're afraid of us. But New York State
is extremely competitive.
I don't think anything is guaranteed.
I just told this kid to go
and practice in front of his board.
So, why is he here right now?
I don't know. I really don't know.
'Cause y'all want me to wild out.
This is my last chance.
Like, if I don't get it,
that's it for me this year.
I can't let it end here.
I want to go to ISEF.
I feel like I put in the work,
and I put in the hours
to actually get into ISEF.
If I don't make it,
I feel like that's kinda lame.
The stakes are high.
If you don't want to lose, then don't.
Be alert for the judges
approaching you and your project.
When they come to you, please stand up.
Each contestant
has a timed presentation to the judges,
who later meet to tally scores
and decide who moves on to ISEF
and who is out of the competition.
The reason why I used these particular
types of rotors, the 45-degree rotor,
I didn't really have any,
like, computer optimization to get it.
Typically, you get about two
or three judges.
Most of them are kind of quiet
in the beginning.
You know, they're just listening
to what you have to say.
But, you know, you can't help
but think about what kind of questions
they're going to ask you.
- I'm with Jericho.
- Oh, great.
- Yeah, what's your background?
- My background? Uh
I'm worried that the judges
that judge me won't know my fields.
So, essentially, the way the basic
building block of attention works
is you have the query vector,
the key vector, and the value vector.
In the introduction,
that's the most important part
where they have to understand things.
If I, like, go super technical
and they don't understand anything,
that's a bad thing because
they won't understand the rest of it.
Have you ever seen
a project regarding suicide?
- No.
- Yeah.
I I always get that a lot.
These are markers that contribute
to executive function deficit,
which is one inherent way
of actually measuring suicide risk.
- Oh, okay.
- Yes.
- Continue, I'm sorry.
- No, no, no, I really love the questions.
No, please don't apologize. So
For me, this is, like,
probably the worst day.
I'm most, like,
nervous I've been of any competition.
I never thought that I would
even get the chance to go to ISEF.
If I went to ISEF,
it just proves that I'm good at it.
Yeah, the reed plants
get considered a nuisance.
But no one really looked into how their
structure is so similar to sugar cane,
which is what we use.
I am nervous. Having a chance at ISEF,
it happens once in a blue moon,
so I can't waste this opportunity.
You can have
a phenomenal project
and not make it to ISEF
because of how your delivery is.
So, I think it's good science,
good motivation, present your butt off.
If they beat you,
they probably should have.
Today, we are going to be
awarding our finalists.
Today, we are going to be awarding those
that are outstanding.
Welcome to the
67th State Science and Engineering Fair
of Florida Grand Awards ceremony.
The purpose of this event is to recognize
the scientific talent
of these fabulous finalists.
The winners at this fair
today get an all-expense paid trip
to the ISEF International Fair.
We have four winners
of the fair this year.
It's been a long day,
so thank you for bearing with us
as we went through all our scores.
With that said,
I'm going to read the Grand Awards.
In order to go to ISEF,
you have to achieve first place
in your category.
I will now read
the second-place winners.
From Somers High School, Charlotte Potter.
Congratulations.
These kids, they worked so hard this year.
So, there's a mindset that you should win
and that you should make it to ISEF.
And unfortunately,
they're not all gonna win, if any.
And that's a reality.
Our last second-place winner.
From Jericho High School
-Samay Lakhani.
-Are you kidding me?
Congratulations.
It's kind of tough,
I'm gonna be honest.
I have to go through
this entire process again on the chance
that I do make it ISEF next year,
and nothing is guaranteed.
That's it.
Yeah.
You guys excited?
Our first ISEF finalist
I didn't get second.
I either didn't place or I got
Sorry. Okay.
From Jericho High School,
Behavioral Sciences, Natasha Kulviwat.
Oh, my God! I made ISEF!
I put my blood, sweat, tears,
my whole life into this!
It's really, like, dramatic,
but it's true.
We are preparing
for the ultimate award,
the gold medals award.
Anxiety, anxiety, anxiety.
From Dominican Convent School,
Memory Bvungo.
There is no affirmation
as big as ISEF
that you can actually have
what you dream of.
Here are your four
that are all going to be at ISEF.
It's time to start giving out awards.
Andrew Wagner.
You did it! You did a good job.
Your hard work paid off. See? I told you.
You did it!
Now, you get to prepare for ISEF.
- You ready?
- Yeah.
I'll give you one day off.
I'm going to Atlanta.
I don't even know what's in Atlanta,
but I'm going to do it. Yes!
This year's Grand Award,
best in fair, in the engineering category,
from St. Lucie, Robert Sansone.
I've wanted to go to ISEF
since middle school.
Meeting with people who share
that same passion as I do
I just find it really exhilarating.
I'm the first-place winner.
I'm going to ISEF.
If we win the spot to ISEF,
we're going to Atlanta
and we are partying.
Coming up
on Science Fair: The Series.
We follow six more students
vying for a spot.
A trio in small-town Colorado
hope their love of science
will propel them to the top.
It's my senior year.
This is my last chance to go to ISEF.
I want to go to ISEF so badly.
Not just for myself
but for my family, too.
A fashion-forward phycologist
from Florida tries for the spotlight.
I mean, I knew about ISEF from,
like, a super young age.
I never, like, thought it was
a potential option for me to go.
And Endrick and Savdiel
aim to win it all for Puerto Rico.
ISEF is a great opportunity
to represent my country.
Bye, guys, I love you!
Those who make it will travel
from across the globe
Team Zimbabwe!
to the final showdown
in Atlanta.
These projects are scary.
Today isn't really my day.
If you can't answer
a question, you're done.
As they compete for
eight million dollars in cash and prizes.
Seeing the caliber of some
of these projects, it's breathtaking.
The competition is really steep.
The level of excellence
is so high.
The kids are really driven.
Only one will come out on top.