Friday, April 20th was a big day for the RHHS GT Research Program. Over 400 student researchers attended the 26th Annual Student Learning Conference at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab to hear each other’s research and see cutting edge performing arts. Prospective & current Intern/Mentor and Independent Research students attended research presentations in topics ranging from “Medical Dramas Versus Reality,” exploring the myths of Grey’s Anatomy, to “Easy, Breezy, Beautiful, Light Skinned,” analyzing the colorism in advertising still prevalent today. Working behind the scenes since December 2017 Zoe-Marie Mongbet-Lamare served as the RHHS member of the Student Executive Committee. This committee is responsible for planning and executing this student led conference. Anika Markan and Eric Kong were our conference hosts; greeting buses, setting up visual displays, supporting presenters, and running presentation sessions. Their efforts ensured that the conference ran smoothly.
Current RHHS research students presented their work using a wide variety of interactive and dynamic presentation styles. Such as Mirabella Meoni who designed a town meeting format that included many participants which demonstrates concretely to her audience the various “voices” of “Comparing Coral Conservation Efforts,”. Using a series of memes to lighten the levity Caroline Dull presented “Why Would You Make Such a Major Mistake?” the impact of the choice of a college major on the economic health of young adults. Yiding Yuan integrated beautiful visuals and dynamic sensory language to ignite the audience’s understanding of his work “Ring Current Auroras: Beautiful Lights of Chaos,”. While Jasmine Tiamfook tricked her audience into awareness with a game of ‘Simon Say’s” which lead to greater understanding of the pressure on African American women’s hard choice between health and beauty in “A Look into the Intersection of Health and Beauty,”. Finally presenting in a large auditorium, Saniya Vashist’s passion and questions pulled the Wi-Fi security blanket out from beneath her surprised audience as they listened to her research in “The World Without Wi-Fi: The Lack of Essential Needs for Incarcerated Youth”. The conference culminated a year’s worth of research from across the county, and marks the beginning of next year’s research endeavors at River Hill High School.
If you believe your student would enjoy or be challenged by these types of experiences have them consider signing up for one of the Advanced Research Courses next year(Independent Research Course or the Intern/Mentor Program)